to wonder why anyone would do this...

[wineoclockthanks]

We have a lovely local park, big field and in the playground area they planted some beautiful apple trees about 4 years ago. They have grown (obviously!) and this year they bore fruit for the first time.

Yesterday evening, a group of teenagers destroyed every single tree . They either snapped the trunk or the main branches and kicked them out of the ground. A friend whose house overlooks the park saw the and called 101 but by the time the Police arrived, they'd scarpered.

I just don't get it, what's the point? What possible pleasure can they get from destroying things, living thing, that we're so beautiful. I did some silly things as a teenager, but something like that would never have crossed my mind.

I despair, I really do

It's not new, as others have said - today's teens are no better or worse than yesterday's.

Nothing's ever been vandalised in our village because everyone knows everyone and if a kid's playing up someone will tell their mum ) but that obviously doesn't work in bigger communities.

Often the individual kids aren't bad - there's a reason for the age old phrase about getting in with a bad crowd - it's often the dynamic between them that makes them do things few of them would do alone. Happens with adults too obviously, usually in different ways.

Barry why on earth shouldn't teens gather with others of their age - that's draconian! Teens where we live "gather" but they don't destroy stuff!

Can you imagine if any other age group were forbidden from gathering with others of their age! No socialising unless at least 2 generations are represented, so better ask your minor daughter along to your next meet up with a group of old school friends!

It should not be socially acceptable to allow your teens to gather with others of their age and without adult supervision, so they can get up to mischief.

It that a wind up?

To be fair, if they keep causing trouble they won't be socialising on the streets in groups. We had a dispersal order and (I can't remember exact ages) under 16/18 were only allowed in groups of 2. Any bigger groups were breaking the terms of the order. But they brought it on themselves, and 9 years later I think another order will be in place soon

Things like this upset me to the point of tears.. It's so destructive, wasteful and sad.

Someone had crushed a bed of tiny narcissi in our local town. Flowers has been ripped up and thrown. I gathered as many as I could and put them in a vase so at least they would be able to give some enjoyment before they wilted. Such a waste.

On a more positive note, the dcs get their school bus from the coolest bus stop ever. It's always well decorated with a theme, often has fairy lights, bunting or something else and I've never once seen that vandalised despite the number of kids who use it each day.

How horrible. I remember this happening when I was a child though so not a brand new wave of teenage vandalism.
I don't get it. Nor do I get why they would smash glass in a children's playground-sure-i get why they might want to hang around there, I can even understand (although I don't condone it in any way) why they might leave litter if there are no bins but it's just vile to deliberately smash glass where young children are going to be playing the next day.

The problem is that when you are a teenager, and we have all been them, you are monumentally dumb about stuff like that. You might be well brought up, polite and wouldn't do bad stuff normally but sometimes you do bloody stupid stuff without thinking.

I'm not excusing what they are doing but we can't pretend that it's teenagers today when in the past teens never did anything like that.

We need to do some kind of civic responsibility work with them in schools I think.

I knew someone would suggest this - as if we don't already.

TBH, despite all the work done in school I found that pupils treated my personal property like shit. Not only would they not bring in their own pen, insisting I lend them one (no use refusing because then they would do no work at all and devote their energies to disruption) but when I had lent them a pen I would find it broken into pieces on the floor.

Whenever I told parents, they were aghast, saying that there were drawers full of pens at home and they couldn't understand it, and anyway little X hadn't broken the pen - he had left it on the desk and someone else had done it . I really felt that these parents had no idea what little shits their kids could be at school - so it doesn't surprise me that they would have no idea what little shits they could be in the community.

Unfortunately there will always be vandals and hooligans. They will always be losers throughout their sad lives.
Take a look at most of their backgrounds, usually there isn't a biological father around and if there is, he's usually jobless and in the pub. Discipline and education are dirty words.
I hate vandals and vandalism with a vengeance and that includes graffiti, I don't care if it is a bloody banksy, its still graffiti to me.
Neither .my siblings nor I were allowed out after dusk unless it was for a specific reason. Just ' going out with mate's ' wasn't a specific reason in my parents view, my DH and I held the same view with our kids.
Vandals and hooligans should be made every weekend to clean, clear and repair everything they have vandalised. They should be made to scrub graffiti until their fingers bleed and sweep until their arms threaten to drop off while their prized possessions are sold to help replace damage.
They might think twice before doing it again then.