To think the world's becoming a horrible place

[Curiouschlo]

All you hear and see is gloom and doom.

Every week there's videos circling Facebook off teenagers battering each other. Today a local one was circling. I couldn't watch it. But I read the local comments. 3 lads beat up an autistic lad after school. Kicking him in the head etc. A girl filmed it. It's becoming a regular thing where I live to be robbed and beaten up in the street. Older Kids spit on the floor and swear and smoke Infront of my small children when we walk home after school. They shout swear words to their mates ahead. They do wheelies Infront of my children and others without any considerations of their actions.

A care home is circling at the moment for abusing a vunerable person in there so called care.

All you hear about is war and coronavirus at the moment. More attacks have happened in London this week.

I'm normally ok but this week I just keep hugging my kids and watching them play, worrying for their futures. I mean what is the future going to be for them? The world's a horrible place. Obviously there's alot of wonderful things in this world. But it breaks my heart to think they have got to be teenagers. My eldest is 5. Will she be happy and safe in 7 years time at secondary? Or will her life be made a misery. At least while they are little I can keep them safe. I'm absolutely terrified of the future and what could happen.

I'm not depressed by the way. I am just abit concerned

Humanity has always sucked. Nothing new. Perhaps different methods but things were always thus.

Whenever I feel like this I always think about the fact that 40 years ago there was pretty much zero safeguarding and adults had total free reign to abuse children, 100 years ago we were sending thousands of 19 year old blokes to die hideous deaths in the trenches, 500 years ago public executions were the norm and someone could get executed just because the reigning monarch disliked them and no one had a problem with it, and 2000 years ago an awesome afternoon of entertainment would consist of going along to the local amphitheatre to watch some slaves murder each other and the more gruesome the better.

So no, I don't think the world is becoming a horrible place.

Curiousclo

I didn't say anything about kids being thugs, I'm talking about giving them everything they demand. There was lots of bullying at school and plenty of crime about, it just didn't get shared on social media, and we didn't have 24 hour access to news either

I work with teenagers every day, and your descriptions bear no resemblance to the VERY vast majority of them.

Why on earth have you got such an awful bee in your bonnet about them? If the teens you see are truly, actually in reality such “thugs”, who are all swearing and smoking weed and “popping wheelies” (why on Earth is a bicycle trick even a problem?!), and this isn’t just an exaggeration, then can’t you see that they are likely extremely vulnerable young people who need help?

@Curiouschlo

YABU, and this is a horrible thread.

And YABU for the way you are speaking to posters who are disagreeing with you, and saying things you don't care to hear.

They do wheelies In front of my children and others without any considerations of their actions.

The horror! How damaging for your kids!

Kids don't play out because of their parents paranoia, not because it is more dangerous now.

I had those feelings when my dc's were young, 20 years ago. Different names for things, same behaviours. Bullying has always happened, disease, wars. The world is not becoming more horrible. For a start, your dd's are human beings in their own right, not breeding stock to be passed from a father to a husband and stuck with him however badly they are treated.

All you can do is your best to try and protect your prepare your dc's, and make your home a sanctuary, and hope for the best.

When I read the OP's post, I immediately thought it sounded just like my childhood in the '70s.

I would recommend you subscribe to the Guardian's 'Upside' weekly email, or Positive News magazine or emails www.positive.news/ to balance the traditional media's saturation with bad news. There's a lot in both of those to be more cheerful about, or to inspire you to take action.

@Curiouschlo I also agree with posters saying that you seriously have a bee in your bonnet, and an axe to grind with teenagers for some bizarre reason that you are not sharing on here.

Maybe teenagers just don't like YOU eh?

go? er no love, you don't get to say if i post or not

@SachaStark I employ teenagers and i honestly am impressed by them. Its sickening to hear them being continuously demonised on MN by parents of cutesy little kids who cannot see that one day their own child will also be feared by the elderly for simply being a teen

Wow. I'll get my coat now!!! They can do their wheelies somewhere else so a four year old doesn't get landed on. One nearly fell on my pushchair but yeah ok.

Never said all teenagers at any point. Just bad behaviour I've noticed.

I'm going now. Feel free to carry on. It's tradition in here to disagree though. Not a Mumsnet post without the twist anything brigade.

My teenager was getting huge and started moaning about people crossing the road to avoid him. Time for a talk on why a smaller, frailer person might be nervous of a fit, lolloping stranger. I certainly don't think indulging strapping, healthy kids in "poor me" thinking is doing them a favour long term.

@LoveNote I just did?? Not interested in your view it's one sided and ignorant

Curiousclo

You might have taken babies out as a teenager, but you're a grown up now and can see it might not have been safe. The mother was probably desperate for a break. I've not heard anything in the news recent about teenagers grabbing babies out of prams and harming them

@Curiouschlo

I'm going now! Feel free to carry on!

Why are you going?

So you start a thread, and then bail less than an hour later, because most people aren't agreeing with you?! How pathetic.

I have to say the teenagers I know actually give me a bit of hope.

Though I do caution my son when he is out with his mates that their behaviour has to be better than the average persons. People don't see Pete and Jack and Eric. They see a group of teenage boys and make assumptions.

Thye are a bit goofy and don't always think things through. But they are no worse than anyone else just because they are teenagers.

Can you actually think of a time period when the world was a 'nice' place OP?

@Curiouschlo well it fell on deaf ears as i'm not doing what you say....why should i?

Civility and humanity is going down the pan in the face of entitlement and ignorance, and certainly to some extent, sheer stupidity. I understand your point OP. Of course people have lived through worse periods in history. But I do fear for the future given the way people choose to behave day to day, the children and teenagers acting out are a direct result of lazy and dysfunctional parenting. A nasty cycle, the consequences of which others have to endure. The cuts to police and other essential services go hand in hand with this. Bloody ridiculous and I'm sure I'm not alone in wanting a better world for my DD to grow up in.

I totally sympathise, Curious. Our society has become much more divided and in many ways more harsh. Lethsl violence is more common. But we are not at war. We are relstively ssfe, snd massively ssfer than during the war.

Teenagers are more aggressive because they know it’s safe for them: in the 1960s or 70s they would have faced physical punishment. But that was a different form of violence.

I hope you can look past the aggression on the streets (it would upset me too) and see that your chikdren are relatively safe. Turn awayfrom facebook, and depressing social media. They make evrrything seem so much worse. Xx

Just think how the media work nowadays OP.
We have Sky News on a constant roll, hammering out the same tales of woe over and over again every hour, in case you never heard it, they have ticker tape going the whole time too. The music to announce the news is serious, loud and it’s hard to ignore, isn’t it?
This adds to the anxiety you feel. It’s constant and hard to ignore.
Could you imagine if the BBC, or CNN decided to churn out happy smiley stuff? It rarely happens. The world would be up in arms, lol! Social media can have its uses but can be blinkin’ awful as well. We know so much more now. Perhaps too much. Perhaps ignorance really is bliss.

Before there were whispers or things were not spoken about before. Now it’s all day every day. Here on this very thread, people are arguing amongst each other 😴. I don’t think the world has become more horrible, but we can’t really hide from the nasty stuff going on. The world has always been full of violence, scammers, fraudsters, arseholes. Always will be.
However, we can choose what to let into our lives.
I got rid of Twitter, that was a load of old bollards. Facebook? Very very rarely look at it or engage with it. I have shared photos on Instagram, but lo and behold, you still get some tosspot who’d get offended by anything posted. Just like on this thread.
I have friends of all ages who don’t watch the news, or tv for that matter, and use social media very very sparingly.
Guess what?
We’re all thriving. Surviving. Living well. It is down to good choices. I think what you witnessed on FB was abhorrent.
Someone ALWAYS wants what someone else has got. It has been going on since the beginning of time. I have the sense to know I don’t need a pricey bit of kit to tell me the time, never mind wanting to stab them for it. There have always been ignorant little sods who cannot comprehend that people are individuals, who think differently or act differently to themselves. So what they don’t understand, they attack. Yes, they’re morons.
No doubt someone will take exception to my opinions and that’s fine by me. I don’t give a tinkers cuss.
I hope you can feel less anxious soon, and find some true peace.

YABU. The world is not “becoming” a horrible place... It has always been horrible! You don’t have to read much history to realise how horrible things have been.

Statistically, the world is a better, safer and less violent place than it has ever been, especially in a country like the UK

Overall things are improving as time goes by. Our awareness of what is happening increases and we become more sensitive to the things we don't like. For some people the perception may be that things have got worse in their lifetime but taking the long view of human history things are steadily improving across almost all available metrics.

If you had the chance to live as an "average" person from any period of history you would be a fool to choose any period other than the present. Chances are you'd find yourself on the breadline or in actual poverty.

Imagine being old and frail and so much has changed since you were 18.

Ah yes, those were the days, the good old 'Teddy Boy' era.

If you had the chance to live as an "average" person from any period of history you would be a fool to choose any period other than the present. Chances are you'd find yourself on the breadline or in actual poverty

Of course nobody is on the breadline or in actual poverty in 21st century UK are they?