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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Shocking antisocial behaviour 10yos

54 replies

Calledakaren · 18/06/2022 17:28

NC as I give way too much away.

Today I was walking in a park with a pond. 4 boys around 10yo were throwing in the lifesaving rings in the pond and shouting and swearing.

As I walked past I asked them to stop and was met with a barrage of abusive language (f word) and called a Karen for interfering.

I said I would be reporting that the life rings had been removed and that it could be their brother, sister or cousin who fell in and needed help. They continued so I took a picture of them throwing in the rings. They then came up and told me to delete the picture as they didn't give their consent and they would be phoning the police. I walked away and they threw a bottle of water at me and continued shouting and removing more rings.

I reported it via 101 but fuck me - how are 10 years old so fucking brazen and bold with their behaviour?!

OP posts:
FionnulaTheCooler · 18/06/2022 17:31

See it all the time on my local Facebook page, people complaining about young kids kicking wing mirrors off vehicles, throwing eggs and stones at moving cars, hanging around local shops in the evenings and being verbally abusive to staff when asked t

FionnulaTheCooler · 18/06/2022 17:32

to leave. The parents clearly don't give a shit where their kids are or what they're doing.

stargirl1701 · 18/06/2022 17:36

I had similar with 12 year olds pelting my car with stones. They were dressed in their school uniform so I took photos. They were incensed! I didn't have 'permission'. The notion that anyone can take your photo in public was news to them!

I phoned the school and spoke to a member of the leadership team. Emailed the photos to him and then contacted the police.

Threetulips · 18/06/2022 17:36

They are left to roam the streets because their parents can’t be bothered to parent.
They don’t value education either and destined to be the next generation of criminals.
I could tell you some stories about kids where I live that are eywatering, however the police now are to be seen as compassionate- and give so many chances or have youth workers involved or social services that work with the families.

How bad does a child need to be neglected to be removed from parents care?

pipping · 18/06/2022 17:40

It’s a disgrace how some kids act.

The worst of it is any time I see someone complain on Facebook about genuine, vile anti-social behaviour the amount of people commenting about how we were all young once and that there’s nothing round here for kids. I suspect that with all the facilities in the world these types of kids would still choose to just spend their time causing trouble.

It’s out of sight out of mind for too many.

Memyselfandfood · 18/06/2022 17:43

Not surprised. Some parents just don’t care. The second you have their pics ( doesn’t matter if the kids are doing something illegal or antisocial) suddenly the parents care.

mizzo · 18/06/2022 17:53

They know there'll be no consequences for their behaviour.
DD used to work in McDonald's and kids of this age group were an absolute menace in the evenings. They'd threaten anyone who stood up to them or asked them to leave with telling the police they tried to molest them or getting their parents down to 'kick off'. The police never really did anything to discourage them.

BananaSpanner · 18/06/2022 17:56

I have a 10 year old boy. They sound older than 10. But yes, horrible. If they’d have threatened me with calling the police in those circumstances, I would have encouraged them.

Georgeskitchen · 18/06/2022 17:57

What they need is a bloody good hiding

Waiting for my arse on a plate......

EnglishGirlApproximately · 18/06/2022 18:03

I have a ten year old boy and there seems to be a massive gulf in his class between kids still playing with toys and kids who hang around the park until late in the evening being obnoxious. Parenting is absolutely the issue - the ones who cause trouble also do so in school - they have few boundaries, play adult console games and have TV in their rooms with no restrictions on what they're allowed.

You could see it coming a mile off, from the age of about 6 it was clear which kids would be doing this. Its sad really as at toddler age they were all lovely kids, but haven't been brought up with any kind of guidance.

antelopevalley · 18/06/2022 18:09

I agree that you can see the kids when they are young who are going to be these kids when older.

Kanaloa · 18/06/2022 18:16

mizzo · 18/06/2022 17:53

They know there'll be no consequences for their behaviour.
DD used to work in McDonald's and kids of this age group were an absolute menace in the evenings. They'd threaten anyone who stood up to them or asked them to leave with telling the police they tried to molest them or getting their parents down to 'kick off'. The police never really did anything to discourage them.

I used to get this exact thing when I worked in a cinema. Crowds of kids who would just loiter around and get really rude when asked to leave. I recognised one of them (his younger brother went to the same school with my son) and mentioned it to his mum but she wasn’t that bothered. The police did come a few times but they’d just move them away and they’d shortly be back.

Anyway it’s not new. There’s always been rowdy/antisocial kids. When I was a kid (rough area) there was a few who would hang round the local shops. You wouldn’t leave your bike outside if they were there! They might kick it or steal it or abuse you. I probably wouldn’t have said anything or tried to take pictures though, I would just have quietly reported.

Kanaloa · 18/06/2022 18:18

Georgeskitchen · 18/06/2022 17:57

What they need is a bloody good hiding

Waiting for my arse on a plate......

Then don’t bother saying it? For what it’s worth, hitting kids won’t actually discourage antisocial behaviour, it’s far more likely to encourage it. Proper parenting would certainly be helpful, but the bar is very low for family support.

Calledakaren · 18/06/2022 18:18

@BananaSpanner they could have been 12yo max, but they were all quite small and I was surprised to see them out without parents.

I did encourage them to call the police and said that would save me the job of reporting their vandalizing!

OP posts:
StickyFingeredWeeNed · 18/06/2022 18:18

we had the police around one evening to talk to my DC about a crime they’d witnessed. I was asked to stay in the back garden - so I was out there ‘avin’ a fag 😁 chatting away to a WPC when an EIGHT year old let himself into my garden, refused to leave and back-chatted the WPC. To say she was gob-smacked was an understatement!

and yes, it’s the bloody parents. That wee delight was being fostered because his birth parents were both in prison.

another 10 year old told my 5 year old he’d “fuck him in the ass”… which wouldn’t have been on MY radar aged 10…

Pumperthepumper · 18/06/2022 18:19

Why didn’t you just immediately phone the police? What reaction were you expecting?

HRTQueen · 18/06/2022 18:21

Parenting is the issue

many parents need support to parent sometimes it’s a cycle but many just can’t be arsed and we excuse them then they children become difficult to manage

Calledakaren · 18/06/2022 18:21

I grew up in a rough area so the original behaviour didn't surprise me, but challenging me and throwing the water bottle did! I will add the park was full of men - some fishing, or sitting on benches and they all turned a blind eye.

OP posts:
Kanaloa · 18/06/2022 18:24

Well to be fair most men won’t approach unattended children for obvious reasons. It could appear intimidating or even dangerous.

Calledakaren · 18/06/2022 18:24

@Pumperthepumper I called 101. 999 seemed a bit extreme. Tbh I expected them to stop throwing the life rings in if an adult challenged them at that age.
Next time I will discretely take a photo and report.

OP posts:
mrsfoof · 18/06/2022 18:25

As others have said, DS is 10 (year 5). About 40% of his cohort are lovely boys who like to play Lego, football / rugby / cricket & Minecraft and still take their favourite cuddly to bed. The other 60% are varying degrees of feral who play inappropriate games like GTA and Call of Duty on their consoles, watch Squid Game, spend hours on TikTok and Discord, stay glued to screens until the small hours and swear using language I had to Google to understand what they were saying.

mizzo · 18/06/2022 18:33

Georgeskitchen · 18/06/2022 17:57

What they need is a bloody good hiding

Waiting for my arse on a plate......

IME these are usually the kind of children who do get smacked, and treated roughly and growled "gerr 'ere" at when they're tiny toddlers, but these are the lazy parenting techniques that don't do anything to change behaviour and are certainly not modelling good behaviour.
If anyone else attempts to discipline them the parents will go into attack mode.

FelixMadrigal · 18/06/2022 18:49

If they called you Karen, they’ll be 12+

cctvrec · 18/06/2022 18:52

BananaSpanner · 18/06/2022 17:56

I have a 10 year old boy. They sound older than 10. But yes, horrible. If they’d have threatened me with calling the police in those circumstances, I would have encouraged them.

I also have a ten year old boy. I live less than 50ft from a park. Believe me, I've seen behaviour just like this from kids younger than 10, and yep, I do know their ages. I ended up getting cctv because of kids harassing us. The threats of police didn't help and the parents claimed crap like kids will be kids and that they can't lock their kids up 24-7 so what could they do?
Magically they managed to stop their children throwing stuff at our house when I told them the parents (not the kids) would be named and shamed on FB.

CallOnMe · 18/06/2022 19:00

A similar thing happened to me a few years ago.
Fortunately a man overheard and came over and gave them absolute hell and they shit themselves and ran away.

I’m a teacher and work with students with SEND and behaviour issues, many of which are violent, abusive and twice my size but it doesn’t bother me.
However I’d think twice about confronting a group of kids if I was on my own now.

I think kids just lack respect nowadays.
I was reading about how the paramedics are assaulted or have things thrown at their ambulances when they go certain places.
It’s disgusting that so many kids have such an entitled attitude.
Some of it is of course neglectful parenting but some of these kids aren’t from poor or neglectful homes, so I’m not sure what the answer is.