To expect teenagers to be respectful?

[BunnyMum2000]

Yesterday, I picked my children up from after school clubs (primary school) and as we were walking home there was a group of 4 secondary school boys in the alley way (FYI - In their school uniforms), using bad language (the F word) I asked them to watch their language in front of young children.

As we walked away from the continued using the F word, finding it amusing.

Today, we again walked past them (3 boys this time) who obviously recognised us and found it funny to shout the F word at us.

This was really disrespectful and quite intimidating for my children, a 9 year old, and 8 year old girl.

AIBU to email their school and complain?

Thanks for the replies.

I have emailed the school.
Its quite a "well to do" area and the school is quite new and still building up its reputation, so hopefully they will address it, but if not .. well we'll just avoid that lane for a while I guess.

It's just cursing, you were a pearl-clutcher yo intervene in the first place. Get a life!

Posting how wrong the teenagers are in swearing around the OP using a swear word to refer to the teenagers- that's the irony!

YANBU. I regularly take a bus with my DC which is a favourite with schoolchildren and, although there is usually a fair amount of noise and rowdiness (and occasionally some silly horseplay), I would be very unimpressed by obvious swearing in front of my DC. But our local teenagers seem a nice lot on the whole as quite often they'll elbow each other to "Mind your language. Children present", which they all seem to find quite amusing. In your case, I would definitely report to the school and ask the headteacher to point out that swearing at others is a form of harassment and potentially illegal.

I'm not suggesting your email isn't the correct thing to do but they are not going to be able to identify the children who did this so realistically the best you can hope for is an assembly.

I couldn't get upset about a group of teens swearing amongst themselves, I think you over reacted.

They shouldn't be swearing AT you however or intimating/harassing you.

I agree with this, it's not even like you were in an enclosed area (bus etc) with them so had to listen to them swearing for an extended period with nowhere else to go. You were literally just walking past and should've moved on and minded your own business. If your kids ask about it you say it's a rude word and not to copy. But you can't control the whole world around you for what you think your little darlings should see/hear. Reminds me of afew ridiculous threads I've seen on here of people complaining about adult strangers crossing roads without waiting for the green man and not modelling correct behaviour for the kids. Strangers don't owe you modelling what you think to be 'correct' behaviour to your kids. They're your kids, they're your concern. Don't expect other people to mitigate their perfectly normal actions (and swearing is normal among teens/adults as shown by your use of it in the OP) for your kids.

They were swearing amongst themselves, nothing to do with you, if you had kept your nose out they would not have swore at you

No wonder people have no manners these days, with this attitude being promoted.
Is it inconceivable to you that things you do in close proximity to other people may impact on them?

Surely teenagers swearing is as old as time itself? I hear plenty of bad language from people much older.

Sure, but being asked to tone it down when there are little kids around shouldn't make any decent teen go on the attack.

The act of making a fuss and asking them to be quiet draws even more attention to it than just ushering the children past quickly. It was a very precious reaction on the part of the OP.

Children aren't traumatised by hearing strangers uttering swear words to each other- it's just part of life. But they do risk being traumatised by their mother's cavalier attitude provoking unwanted harassment and intimidation.

When confronting strangers, especially when you're with small kids and they're in a group, you really have to ask yourself if it's worth it. Nine times out of ten, you're better off just ignoring.

Agree with @SmellyWellyWoo the best thing is to just ignore them, they'll think it's funny if you say something. Just distract your kids and talk about something else. I've confronted teenagers before but they were kicking a ball repeatedly into a toddler play park.