My local train station is currently burning down

[thehardestpartis]

Reportedly due to children being on the station at 5:45 this morning and setting fire to an equipment cabinet.

AIBU to ask where the hell are the parents?! This will cause chaos in the town, reduce holiday maker visits and just generally worsen an already run down town.

The parents should be punished for arson with intent to endanger life, as should the children.

We are seeing an increasing amount of bad parenting.

Yes so maybe the defending of parental support (like I mentioned!) might have something to do with that??

If it were as simple as 'parents just need to parent' and 'kids just need to behave' then we wouldn't be seeing issues. Burying your head in the sand and blaming individuals instead of the systemic issues helps no one

"to be honest arson and kids is fairly pedestrian, it’s not unusual or new."

Really?! Is this true? It's absurd to me - I literally do not consider this normal behaviour at all - I find it quite shocking.

Do you mind saying where you live?

Why does it matter where she lives?

Bored kids have been starting fires since the year dot.

I'm in my late fifties and the local yobs used to start them over the park, in alley ways, set alight to large bins etc.

@Dahliasrule Devon is really lovely. You will be fine if you do outdoor things.

I definitely agree that parents of people under 18 who commit crimes should automatically be considered guilty of the crime themselves and punished accordingly. That might make them stop and think a bit more - when 'somebody else's' problem suddenly becomes their problem. Naturally, they should also be given a bill to replace stolen goods or to repair deliberately damaged amenities.

Naturally, when the evidence is considered, if it turns out that the parents have done everything they possibly could, sought help, raised concerns and still could not have stopped a child with serious problems from doing it, that's different; but it isn't the case for the vast majority of these appalling parents.

But if it is indeed a nightly occurrence it would be easy for the police to stand by and arrest them…… one would think - but maybe they just can’t be bothered?

There’s basically a gang of kids running riot along the south Devon coast catching the train between Paignton and Dawlish. They’ve been a nightmare in Dawlish. All the police can really do is disperse them. They haven’t got the man power to deal with them - we need that social media ban asap we need investment into coastal communities not cities. The trouble is Torbay council has, for years taken payment from councils like Birmingham to take their dregs. Torbay council are shit - most of their schools are shocking

Maybe they are so drastically undermanned and covering a ridiculously wide area it’s not practical to do anything but disperse them

Sorry, what about 40/50/60 years ago or even further back? There wasn't loads of support to be had and yet we managed to raise children on a whole to be functioning adults.

Yes, it is about parents needing to parent. This is the bloomin basics and the parents are responsible for bringing up children well.

It happened in my area (which admittedly has its rough elements) the weekend before last, some teenage scroat set fire to someone's garden and allegedly started one somewhere else in the area too. Frightening.

We have holidayed in Paignton every year since 2013, staying in the Travelodge. DD is AuDHD and likes going back there , she is now 18. This year we have booked an apartment instead of the TL though.

Growing up DD loved the park, the funfair, the sea. We love Paignton.

Paignton is like any other seaside place though, it isn't quiet and tranquil. If your cottage is rural then of course it should be quiet.

The beach is quieter though if you walk up past the Travelodge to Preston Sands, it is not crowded and noisy like the other end where the pier is. There is a small food kiosk and toilets nearby.

Paignton Zoo is nice, and there are buses/trains to Dawlish and Torquay. Dawlish is lovely.

God, is there nowhereyou can go in this country that hasn't turned to shit

I didn't realise Devon was experiencing so many problems

As for where the Parents are

Where I live, we've had somebody breaking into a public building for a prank. Or at least that's what he was trying to do. A man round age 40. Probably teaches his kids to do the same thing.

Yes, I think punishing the Parents isn't a bad idea but it does have to be proper enforced community service or something

There's no point fining people money they don't have

and this excuse about clubs is ridiculous

It's not just that they don't care what their kids are doing, we're now on the generation who behaved like that... have kids and encourage the kids to do the same

Ok so what's the reason we're seeing bad parenting now then?

😂 because this is working, given the epitome of morality and wholesomeness the US is

I was so sad to see this on the news this morning. I don't live there anymore but used to. I have spent many a tearful train journey having been waved off by my parents from the platform.

If they do close the station and terminate trains at Torquay it will kill tourism in the town.

I honestly don't know. Lack of policing? Where I am there are gangs of kids shoplifting and hurling racist abuse at staff who stop them.
Police don't come out for shoplifting, so they get away with it.

In my town there is a youth centre. The teenagers go in, are bored within 10 minutes and then leave and cause trouble in the neighbourhood. They all have screens induced ADHD.

Yes, I believe that it's time to start naming the culprits and I also believe that shit parents should be punished too. However there should of course be mitigation if the parents are proven to have tried and failed due to systematic failures.

But 40/50/60 years ago you still had vandalism, fires started in the summer, fights between groups of youths - often big planned ones just fewer people were caught because no CCTV, ring doorbells, camera phones etc and even those who were the news didn't spread in the way it does now with the internet and social media

We have kids this age wondering the streets. One of the parents say "oh Jonny doesn't need much sleep but he likes to be outside" 🤣 she literally couldn't care less where her son is. I don't know if she's massively naive and or just doesnt care.

Not necessarily. Think back to the 70s and 80s and what kids got up to even knowing that they’d get a good slap for it if their parents found out. You could argue that parenting in those days was often what we’d term as neglectful, but never ‘gentle’.

@Metalmotha

The trouble is Torbay council has, for years taken payment from councils like Birmingham to take their dregs.

Lots of run down seaside resorts have done the same, such as Morecambe and Blackpool, with the same inevitable consequences. Heaven knows why councils do it as it's not a surprise that "problem" people bussed in from other areas are just going to cause problems in their new town too!

“Screens induced ADHD”?! God help us.

I used to live in a town in Oxfordshire and kids would set fire to haystacks, bins, stables, allotment sheds. Basically anything they could.

I think mobile phones contribute to more parental neglect nowadays.

Everywhere I look parents have their noses stuck in them and many are just ignoring their kids.