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.

‘Maybe it's drunk ass adults smashing bottles in the park? Maybe, due to cuts to youth services, they are just bored and frustrated,’

Stop making excuses for them. It’s still unacceptable

It may or may not be teens. Young peoole have nothing but worry ahead if them, their education has been poor, hindered by lockdowns and lack of engagement. Higher education means 50-70k of debt, with little chance of owning a property. Everything is so expensive it feels impossible to get anywhere in life. I'm speaking as a millennial here it was tough for me and will continue to be but wow, the next generation are really struggling, can we blame them for hitting out?

@TheHateIsNotGood no problem- lol- I'm pretty good at passing exams too -- but can't rewire a house or cut hair to save my life!!

Having lived in the uk and other countries (and knowing teens in both) I think the drinking culture and normalization of drinking in uk is unusual and doesn’t do the teens any favours!

People who aren’t teenagers maybe?

This with bells on.

I live in the US, and it is absolutely not done in the area where I live. Not only are no parks or playgrounds destroyed, you don't see graffiti because the town/ local admin has a power washer to wash off any that appears.

So you live in a shithole area and have decided your shithole is standard across the UK? Parks are clean and safe where I am in the uk, teens are lovely too and I live in what’s classed as a deprived area

You are completely unreasonable. Most of the teenagers we have known have been really great people.

Most are lovely but I agree that there are an increasing number of entitled and feral kids who think they can do exactly what they want. They aren’t disciplined at home or at school and this is the consequence. I’m tired of hearing excuses about how they had it tough during Covid or that they have ACEs etc. As a teacher I’ve worked with loads of kids who have had some pretty tough lives but this doesn’t make them run around smashing up play areas. Teenagers are old enough to know right from wrong. The bullying and vandalism I’ve witnessed in schools over the past few years has been awful. If they get away with it there then this will naturally move to the community too.

The kind of teenagers who wreck parks are miserable individuals beneath the loud, brash behaviour amongst their mates. Normal happy teenagers who feel safe and contented in their lives don't behave like that - sure, they are often obnoxious in their own teenager kind of way by grunting at their parents, or wanting to be alone all the time at home, headphones on; or leave cups around the house; putting off doing homework; rolling their eyes at the request to tidy their room etc. But actual vandalism? Of children's facilities? No. I believe that's caused by jealousy and unhappiness. Happy and secure teenagers just move on from the play park stage and onto the next stage of their lives quite happily, and leave the happy memories behind them no issues because they know there's just more happiness and security to come. Unhappy and desperately insecure teenagers struggle with this transition from child to young adulthood because it's ofteh the time they feel least secure and most anxious about the future.

Those play parks when they were children made them forget their shitty home lives for a bit and gave them some happiness in their lives, even if they were at the park on their own/friends, without parents, or if their parent was off smoking a fag somewhere staring into their phone ignoring all pleas of "look at me, mum".

Playparks, and other similar fun childish things they are past the age for, or feel not a part of anymore, kick sad young people in the face every time they go past. For them, the anger at the loss becomes overwhelming and the only way they know to try to overcome that feeling is by destroying it.

The question I have is, why do we have so many unhappy and disaffected teenagers compared to other countries?

It's not just that, though. That kind of behaviour has just become more normalised in England. We've always had unhappy and traumatised kids in the UK. But respect for authority or community, and worry about consequences, always held some of them back to some extent from antisocial behaviour. Those things have all gone in England now to some extent, so that those unhappy teenagers just act on impulse and don't give it a second tthought. And whereas someone who suggested setting fire to the roundabout or bin or something might have had someone in the group pull them back on the idea by appealing to their better conscious, all we have nowadays is the idea that it'll make it a cool video to send to their mates to get a laugh. So social media plays into it too.

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

Can I ask where in Scotland? Guessing not greater Glasgow with its ned/young team culture.

There is a lot of lazy Parenting in the UK but anyone who points that out gets shot down.

We also work long hours here compared to Europe and our children simply cannot be prioritised as they are elsewhere in the world.

There is also very little mental health support for teens here and the weather is shit a lot of the time so they’re limited in their outdoor pursuits.

That's one of the reasons I live a city. I remember from my own schooldays that the rural teenagers had nothing to do and were dependent on their parents for lifts everywhere so ended up getting drunk in fields, and taking drugs, and committing minor crimes and having sex just for something to do. My local parks are all in a pretty good state.

Where there aren't facilities for teenagers, either through isolation, lack of provision in general, or in areas where teens can't afford what's on offer or can't get there safely, that's when teenagers tend to become more antisocial.

I do think it’s a cultural phenomenon too. The English are not rule followers and do not like to be told what to do. Which is to be admired I think but other countries conform to social etiquette and a sense of accepted behaviour and it seems to work.

We seem to struggle with a lot of anti social behaviour. Teachers see the worst of it and these children are watching their parents and mirroring disrespect to teachers and anyone else in authority.

I don't recognise this at all. I live opposite a playground in fairly central London where teenagers hang out at night. They don't graffiti, or break things. I often pass them after a night out and never feel intimidated.

They sit on the play equipment and chat. They hangout there likely because they live in flats and don't have a lot of private space to hangout together indoors. They don't drink but probably do some drugs at times, but this doesn't lead to them being loud or trashing the place so doesn't bother me.

In contrast we do have a problem with drug users nearby who are openly using crack on the street. They also are often drunk and can be aggressive. None of them look under the age of 30. I can't remember the last time a police officer came past.

So just a reminder that anti social behaviour isn't exclusive to teenagers. We do have a number of complex societal issues in this country, but I don't think we can just blame teenagers

These posts are so unhelpful. A good friend of mine just moved back to the UK from Aus after 14 years for family reasons and a good job opportunity. She was in tears daily before coming over, she’s an avid mn user and was terrified by how awful the UK but especially England where she moved back to has become.

4 months later and she loves it. If you read MN it sounds like the worst place in the world but she said the negative changes are similar to what’s happened in Aus over her time there anyway (cost of living, housing crisis etc). Threads every day about how shit: teenagers/houses/days out/GPS delete as appropriate are so tiresome. Our local GP is great. Our local parks never get trashed. I don’t live in a fancy area so move here I guess? Vote with your feet and leave your area or the UK if you hate everything about it!

Football, football, football.
Growing up the lads (this was the late 60s/70s) all played in the local football club.

YABVU to just say UK teens are awful based on very little actual knowledge.

Teens aren't a homogeneous group. Some UK teens are awful, some aren't. Same for every other country.

My teen is lovely.

That’s a fair point. My teens were also lovely. It’s just frustrated me to see the difference in respect to property.

Thanks to all the replies. There were a lot of points. It was an eye opener to think that Saturday jobs are a thing of the past in the UK. Perhaps the ability to earn your own money does make a difference.
or perhaps I have struck unlucky in England and lucky in Germany with the parks.

Not All Teenagers Are Like That

Everyone is not born the same!
How naive to think so.

You understand that "both villages" isn't a big enough example to extrapolate?
Germany has significant social problems with young people, as do most countries.

Really? All German teenagers are polite and mature?