UK teenagers are awful

[Fedupwithteenagers24]

I live between two villages in the UK. Both have playgrounds aimed at under tens. Both are frequently trashed. Broken bottles left there overnight, stuff sprayed over the equipment. This has been particularly bad over the summer holidays. Currently in Germany. Loads of playgrounds, toys are left there anyone can use them. Nothing is vandalised. Why are things so bad in the UK? And before I get asked neither the UK venue or German one have any areas aimed at teenagers. But somehow the German ones don’t wreck their surroundings.

so if you're saying all babies are manipulative and all toddlers are brats then that is a problem.

why is it okay to apply negative stereotypes to children and not older adults then?

Yes yes of course op your anecdotal evidence proves unequivocally that every teenager in the uk is a vile hooligan. You MUST be right. Every German teenager is a paragon.

I await your dc / gdc becoming teenagers. Then come back and tell us what shits they all are.

fyi I live 75m from a large playground and 150m from a skate park both of which are well used and respected. I hope that helps.

@zeddybrek I agree with that- there are a ton of lousy and utterly disinterested parents out there and the fact we have to be 'all understanding' towards shitty behaviour-

@Blueybanditbingochilli oh I agree with that-

Currently on holiday in zurich where we used to live and honestly the difference with the UK is shocking. Not only does it feel so so much safer but life is not on a knife edge. By comparison, we now live in one of the super naice villages in SELondon....and here local volunteers have set up patrols after school to stop school kids being constantly mugged for their phones. Parks do get vandalized and what is it with all the masks.

May I mention if we are generalising plenty of awful people of my own age group (62) -totally self interested, bigoted, rude to staff and generally unpleasant- I see plenty of them out there here in town every day -

YABU

i have 2 teenagers and neither them nor any of their friends have vandalised playparks

I agree that it's likely lack of facilities and a bleak looking future in deprived areas. The weather doesn't help.

Because children can’t be discriminated against in a workplace, mainly.

I live in a European country; I visit UK about every 6 weeks.
There is a massive difference.

While groups of teens do hang about here and there is some ASB (mostly scooters and mopeds around streets late at night) there is never the air of intimidation, threat and gang mentality like in UK.
The kids here have respect for their elders and the police. They enjoy community events and are actively involved. They are still kids for longer. They have strong ties to the community long after they have left the village and return each summer to get involved.
It really does take a village to raise a child here - kids know that if their parents don’t catch and punish them for doing wrong someone else will with no woke brigade to debate the whys and wherefores of that.

In stark contrast; the balaclava clad, North Face bubble wearing, man bag carrying, pre pubescent wannabe gangstas lurk in the villages terrorising passers by with no fear of the police and parents that don’t know or care where they are. They have no respect for authority, their elders or others.
In my town the good teens far outweigh the bad ones but it’s the bad ones that are lawless wrecking parks and gardens with no consequences.

I wouldn’t say the UK is worse than all of continental Europe, but it’s worse than countries we fancy we are comparable to (by GDP at least). Eg, Ireland, France, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Scandinavia. Compared to these the UK has a worse standard of living for most people, worse antisocial behaviour, worse inequality, worse public services. If you’re in the top 5-10% of high incomes then the UK is good. If you’re not you’d be better off born in one of those aforementioned. It’s a very unequal country by European standards. Thatcherism correctly identified some of the issues the UK faced but the solutions were simplistic, shortsighted - basically wrong.

Until there appears to be a future for all then teenagers will just go what's the point? there's no future for us all. Just for the people that fit the 'mould' and the rest can just be slaves.

Sound familiar? It is. UK Teens are some of the best people on Earth, I was one once.

Why do kids take education so seriously in 3rd world countries then?

@FFSWherearemyglasses yep- I agree to a large extent-

There are a fair amount of feral parents raising equally feral children. Those parents are not on MN.

Some teens are absolutely fine, that are just teens… however there are some that go above and beyond to piss you off and make you wanna kill the little fuckers. I work in a retail shop in town, we have groups of teens daily, most we have no problems with, but every day there’s at least one group that come in cause chaos, abuse staff, and they know they can get away with it because when call the police they do fuck all. One even threw a drink on my colleague the other day for kicking them out as they were destroying the shop. So yeah some teens are absolutely vile.

I agree with you there. I don't live in the UK anymore but was surprised to hear from my friends over there; kids can't get a Saturday job anymore. It's not allowed. It's such a big part of growing up and keeping you busy at a vulnerable time. I just think it's such a mistake to not allow teenagers to have a part time job!

@Crikeyalmighty - can't say why they do for sure but I'd hazard a guess they perceive UK educational qualifications as representing an high standard.

Meanwhile, for the many other schoolchildren of many cultures across the globe, in every place, there are many young people able to do the many more other things that need doing besides passing exams.

I'm rather good at passing exams myself but that certainly doesn't make me superior in any way. So who makes the stuff that we actually use and need?

Just stop shitting on our young people and give them something better to strive for otherwise you get what you're given.

Not sure what you are disagreeing with me on as I agree with you

oops@Crikeyalmighty I do apologize.

I do know what you mean about the UK. It's got to be worse than a lot of places.

The countries I've lived in though have all been more or less equally bad for ASB in young people imo. I've lived in France, UK, NI, England, Scotland, USA. The worst was France tbh (I lived in the middle of Paris and there were a lot of badly behaved kids there) and the best was Scotland. England probably second worst, Ireland second best and USA somewhere in the middle...

I don't know why, but I always assume Germany has better behaved kids and people in general, but I've barely been there at all tbh, so it's a total guess based on what people say.

On the flipside, 4 teenagers spent an hour teaching my 5 year old niece how to drop in on a skateboard ramp last week.

Teenagers aren't a homogenous mass any more than any other age group. I know a number of 80 year olds who are utter twats, doesn't mean all OAPs are.

I think it's also to do with specific areas as pps have said. So affluent parts of Edinburgh don't compare to deprived areas of England for example.

Anyways, for those calling for a new National Service programme and for those that don't:

I do note that many of the [welcomed] Apprenticeship Schemes commencing September 2024 (next week!!) involve an initial 2 week Induction Training period that's carried out at Residential Centres miles from home.

I'm all for it and will be waving bon voyage to ds, but will be very watchful from as afar as I can be on the 'gist' of it all.