My teens are saying they will ignore any new restrictions

[WearyandBleary]

Big argument this evening. My teens are saying they will ignore any new restrictions because they are mixing at school/college anyway, so what’s the point of not mixing outside of school?

They are really furious. I am quite shocked at how angry they are.

Are they being really selfish? I’m so cross with them. How are other people’s teens taking the possibility of more restrictions?

Then come back here in 8 weeks and tell me they feel the same .

A pandemic requires people to think of others. It doesn't go away because you are 'bored' of it.

Their actions and behaviour an kill someone's parents or grandparents. I would be horrified to have such self centred kids.

Ginogineli, no wonder your area is in local lockdown!

They have to take public transport to college and are then in classrooms of up to 30 people.

Dd is saying she will still be Seeing her boyfriend.

It does seem made mixing them in big year groups and then telling people they can’t stay over at their partner’s house again...

This isn’t going to work now is it?

I completely agree with them. How is it not safe for me to be close to my family but fine for hundreds of children to be roaming around the same school with zero social distancing? It isn't safe. But if they are doing it anyway I can 100% see why they have this logic. The government is a joke and have made a right mess of this.

Where’s the evidence of this?

I completely understand what they are saying. They are not being unreasonable.

@Seriouslymole

I don't think you should be cross with them, I think you should be cross for them. Children of all ages, but particularly teens have been absolutely shafted in the handling of this.

I'm with your teens frankly.

^^ exactly this

No, they aren’t being selfish. Even if they are being, I wouldn’t blame them anymore. Certain year groups especially, but all of them really, have already had to sacrifice a lot and are continuing to do so, it’s not fair to expect them to put their lives on hold any further for any longer.

On a hypothetical level I feel sorry for teenagers, but then I go to work and experience their completely selfish, unsafe attitudes and I think what they all need is to be told, repeatedly and unequivocally, without kid glove handling or gentle reasoning, to follow the bloody rules and take some bloody responsibility for their own behaviour. If you are 14/15/16/17 years old, you are old enough to understand what is happening and to comprehend your own role in spreading/reducing spread. To then deliberately not do what needs to be done to reduce the impact on others and ultimately your own prospects goes beyond stupidity. Parents should be helping by, for example, telling teenagers to wear masks, instead of explicitly telling them not to and telling them to keep their distance. I reminded a supposedly intelligent 17 year old student today about social distancing and she responded as if I’d told her to put a kitten in a liquidiser.

Fucking ridiculous.

it isn't just young people @annabel85 for goodness sake. I hate the blame being put on young people all the time.

I could see their viewpoint and empathise with it. I'd probably have felt the same as them as a teenager.
However it was my kids their funding would be removed, no car, no money, no nice food.

I'm horrified by the number of people on here saying they won't follow the rules even when they're in a local lockdown. After today's press conference too!!

It doesn't go away because you are 'bored' of it.

Exactly. It seems that few people understand this.

Okay... Do they "need" to protect you? If they do, then point out what may happen to you if they do not do more social distancing

Parent or friends? Parent or friends? No brainer in my book.

The teenagers may be feeling frustrated, so bloody what! They may or may not be the age that is now going to spread this ruddy virus, we sinple do not know but are they willinng to take the change with you?

Dd is saying she will still be Seeing her boyfriend.

Tell her to save up then because you won't be paying any fines she occurs off the police or the marshals if she insists on breaking the law.

They've got a cheek when young people have caused this spike in the first place

Have you any evidence for this?

Of course they are angry and of course your DD wants to see her boyfriend.
This whole situation is utterly abnormal. There was always going to be a time limit on how long people comply.
I wouldn't have complied either at their age.

It's immature to not understand this - so if they are 12/13 I might have some compassion with their point of view. If they are 15/17 they should be ashamed of themselves.

A 15/17 year old brain is still immature. Our brains are not fully mature until we are around 25.

Life experience also leads to maturity. So I think we can forgive OP’s teenagers for being immature.

@AlexaShutUp

It doesn't go away because you are 'bored' of it.

Exactly. It seems that few people understand this.

Boris and the government understood it back in March. They knew they'd only get one shot at lockdown for this reason.

Today’s press conference didn’t tell us anything we didn’t know already

People will die

People die everyday

There is an ‘acceptable’ level of deaths across all illnesses and diseases eg we know thousands die of flu, cancer and diabetes everyday and we don’t grind world to a halt

Yet there doesn’t seem to be an acceptable level of death for covid? 200 is nothing in 67 million

450 per day die of cancer every single day and we carry on as normal

Agree. The young are totally shafted over this.

165000 every year in uk from cancer

Every year

So 60-70000 by end of the year from covid doesn’t makes sense to me

I don’t blame them one bit.

Have you any evidence for this?

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-are-young-people-to-blame-for-a-new-rise-in-covid-19-cases-12039185

It was well established that the infections were highest among younger age groups across Europe during the peak of summer which was starting to rise more in recent weeks and then it was always going to be brought into schools and colleges from there.

I'm not saying young people are to blame because the government were encouraging people to go out and spend etc. The point was, it's the demographic that was getting most infected during the summer peak (hence low hospitalisation and death rates); therefore they can't really complain that the scientific advise is to restrict socialising when it's caused the second wave (all socialising has tbf).

@kitnkaboodle

They are being selfish. They mix at school AND outside of school, they're together for twice as long (and in a more unregulated way) than if they were just at school.

It's immature to not understand this - so if they are 12/13 I might have some compassion with their point of view. If they are 15/17 they should be ashamed of themselves.

They’ll be together for twice as long but quite frankly I’m struggling to see an increased risk. They are already together for large amounts of the day with no social distancing. There is nothing regulated about a “bubble“ of 250 kids, who have to congregate into a small area every break time / lunch.

People can make a point about the rules if they like, which yes they should be following, but to say it increases the risk for them to socialise outside of school with the same people they have spent hours in a classroom with is ridiculous.

It's things like this that make people less compliant imo