Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to think this is so typical of the way our society views teenagers?

48 replies

OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 11:39

We have a new skate park opening in our town today. It has been promised for about 20 years and even now it is only a small park - a fraction of the size of the one originally planned by the district council. However... better than nothing.

Currently children who want to skate are harried and hassled from one end of the town to the other - unoffical 'skate parks' (such as hillocks and mounds in parks) have been flattened, skaters get moved on from anywhere they try to skate.

(Incidentally our pool was closed down recently in the most high-handed and undemocratic manner imaginable so there is one less activity for teenagers and younger children. )

So all in all the grand opening of the skate park is a much anticipated event - we will have pro-skaters, t-shirts handed out and DS#1 is so excited he even got up with me at 7am! But whilst searching for news of it I came across this on a police website;

"Due to the pending Easter holidays the park will be in demand by a number of youths. The SSN team will target patrols and utilise CCTV to minimise neighbourhood concerns. The local youth workers are also aware "

So even when they are doing their thing, a healthy activity that promotes skill and agility, gets them out in the fresh air taking aerobic exerise, in the place designed for it and paid for by us, they are the target of mistruct and assumptions about their behaviour. I despair.

Perhaps I should just tuck him up in front of his X-box and lock him in

OP posts:
mumblechum · 09/04/2010 11:40

Orm, that they're assumed to be guilty of offences before the place has even opened.

Most skaters I know are lovely, well behaved lads. It's the ones who have no hobbies who are more likely to cause trouble imo

Alambil · 09/04/2010 11:41

and yet you'd be told by a doctor that you're leading him up the path to obesity

can't bloody win, can they... teenagers, I mean

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 11:42

"It's the ones who have no hobbies who are more likely to cause trouble imo "

Well exactly! Then their 'hobbies' tend to be drinking and damaging play equipment.

So cross.

OP posts:
Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 11:47

DS is already a bit resentful of it all. He assumes any police are there to tell him off. When I was a kid police were the good guys

OP posts:
Butkin · 09/04/2010 12:16

That is the usual PC nonsense that we're so blighted with these days. Tell your kids that they should not worry and the Police are just there to make sure they have a good time and so that other, jealous, kids won't get in their way.

Fingers crossed the opening goes well and that your kids have a great time!

FioFio · 09/04/2010 12:20

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 12:22

But it is the assumption that rankles fio. Why do we always assume that any group of young people is going to cause trouble. IME skaters are not trouble makers. Too nerdy about their skating usually

OP posts:
Tiredmumno1 · 09/04/2010 12:26

The reason they are probably doing this is to try and stop any damage and vandalism, especially if it cost a bit of money. and i agree its not the skaters its others that will hang around, bored. thats who they will be watching.

herbietea · 09/04/2010 12:28

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

FioFio · 09/04/2010 12:30

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 12:38

Oh I know it goes on. Of course. But I often wonder if it's our assumptions about 'yoof' that makes some of them behave that way. Give a dog a bad name and all that. IME most teenagers are reasonable people.

And it is precisely activities likes this that stop teenagers doing stupidly pointless and annoying things.

I honestly feel that some people won't be happy until every teenager is in lock-down in their homes when they aren't actually in school.

OP posts:
foureleven · 09/04/2010 12:38

I can see why you're cross orm. I wouldnt really like the thought of my kids to be patrolled like inmates when they're just trying to skate.

That said though, maybe a way to look at it is that if the police are there and any unsavoury types turn up (i.e. teenagers who arent as well behaved as your son) he will be protected?

I dont think a police presense can harm really. Especially when you hear stories about shop windows getting smashed and wheelchairs being stollen. Jeess!!

GetOrfMoiLand · 09/04/2010 12:38

I don't know what it is about skaters which winds people up so much.

In my experience they are generally nice kids - not the kind of kids who drink and maraud around parks.

I loathe the way all teens are viewed as they should be immediately distrusted. There is a lot of anti-teen feeling about - and there is a lot of it on here as well. Lots of threads about people being 'scared' of teenagers.

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 12:41

To be fair we have some really nice and approachable PCOS who will almost certainly be the ones patrolling. And I have no problem with that.

I think I am a bit sore on the subject from the number of time DS has been 'moved on'from the latest bit of unused ground they have found to skate one. I get fed up with him and his mates being seen as pests when they aren't. And now they have got something formal to use they are still being targetted.

OP posts:
Fennel · 09/04/2010 12:43

They put a skate park in the park in my parent's town, and shortly after dismantled it due to neighbours' complaining about the noise of teenagers skating. . It's a small market town without that much for teenagers to do, you'd think skating would be a good thing.

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 12:44

"Lots of threads about people being 'scared' of teenagers. "

Ohhh yes indeed!

I go running and I often come across groups of teenagers. Invariably they will apologise for blocking the path and politely move out of the way of this sweaty middle-aged woman barrelling towards them. They aren't all threatening and nasty. Given the choice between a group of teenagers and a group of pissed-up 20-something revellers on saturday night in town, I know who I'd prefer to encounter.

OP posts:
foureleven · 09/04/2010 12:47

Yes they shouldnt be moved on if they are causing no harm, thats totally unfair.

It just breeds resentment in teenagers about authority which can only lead to naughtiness Im sure.

Plus, its hard enough as parents to find things to entertain teenagers as it is, especially free things. If you've brought your kids up well and they want to go out with their friends and do something healthy and active it would rile me for the police to send them back to me..!

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 13:26

And another thing? Why don't girls do this? DD isn't interested inspite of being an active child in other ways. Is it a very macho sort of thing? I'll put any money on their being no girls skating today

OP posts:
cuddlysoutheastastra · 09/04/2010 13:28

in one sense though maybe money from the police has been used to fund the park so they need to show that they are doing something iykwim

stleger · 09/04/2010 13:40

We have had a basketball court for two years now. It is open air, it has hoops and a sort of goal thing for five a side soccer. It is like every neighbourhood in America, like a teenage American place to hang out. it is constantly used by all ages, but mostly teenagers. It is the one place in our local park which is litter free and broken glass free. I have never seen any potentially shadey characters hanging about it. (Skating here is 'the Lidl carpark' and Lidl seem very toleramt!)

MorrisZapp · 09/04/2010 13:47

YABU.

Anywhere that 'good kids' congregate, 'bad kids' will turn up.

Of course the skaters are there to indulge their sport, but if there's a 'focal point' anywhere in a park with teenagers there, then it's a very short matter of time before the neds turn up and try to spoil it.

The neighbours have every right to be concerned - I would be. Not because I think skaters are antisocial, but becuase I know enough about the world to know what happens when young people congregate anywhere.

I can't see what's wrong in supplying a police presence anyway - it's not as if they've threatened arrests in advance. Think of it as protection for the good kids from the inevitable unwanted attention they'll get from passing yobs.

MorrisZapp · 09/04/2010 13:48

The girls will wear the gear, sit on the sidelines watching, and trying to get off with the best skaters.

WebDude · 09/04/2010 14:57

I can see it appears a bit OTT on having CCTV and so on, but in a way it might reduce bullying and so on. As MZ indicated, once there's a focal point...

(While I'm not suggesting it likely in this particular case, drug deals and other activity might take place, so making it obvious there is some degree of surveillance might only be as a warning to criminals and thugs not to bother at the skate park.)

Original poster
OrmRenewed · 09/04/2010 15:33

I guess so.

We'll see.

Not totally sure why drug dealers and trouble makers would choose to hang around a busy skate park rather than all the other places that groups of kids loiter.

OP posts:
stleger · 09/04/2010 17:14

(Round the side of the community centre for drugs, in the council office grounds for drink where I live! Well lit, open ground is less good for bad boys and girls).

Swipe left for the next trending thread