UK teens among the most badly behaved in Europe

[WhizzBangCaligula]

Oh God.

report here

This is so depressing. I want to move.

OMG! I answered 'yes' to every one of those descriptions of French girls .

I'm still here in matching underwear.

It's from Tesco, but it matches and it's pretty and I wash them by hand in the sink w/lavender lingerie wash.

My 3-year-old uses moisturiser!

no outlet stores nearby...
TKmaxx any good?

Why, every time anything to do with this subject ever comes up in the media, do they always roll out..."families need to eat around the table...blah..blah", as if this the answer to every single teenage problem and social problem in the entire UK. Sometimes we eat round table and sometimes slob out with tea in front of TV, however still hold conversation with kids wherever I sit. Is it just me who thinks like this?

I recycle my bras!

I agree fizzbuzz, though not being english I do find it odd...

The problem is "over parented" children. All those bloody SAHMs, you know.

I'm just kidding, of course.

Fizz, I think the problem is not the lack of a spcific bit of furnature I think that some kids are porly behaved because they don't sit with their family and talk and share things.

Having dinner together is just one way.

But I'll bet my beets that the kids who act up most don't share dinner, or any meal, or even share TV watching time. these kids will be away watching telly in their own room, or out with their mates. None of these things are bad on their own, but it is tha general lack of family time that is the issue.

Crap food also is an issue. I teach 16 year old swho can't use a knife and fork because they never eat proper food, they just eat junk that you eat with your hands.

the table manners of some teenagers would shame a 4 year old!

I think it's a bit of a shame that there is so much negativity directed towrards the 'youth of today'. Bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy then isn't it? And every August we hear about GCSEs and A Levels getting easier - never mind giving teenagers a bit of credit for studying hard and dealing with the immense pressure put on them.

I think the whole "youth of today" thing is shameful. We produce the buggers, if we don't like them it's our fault. If they can't spell, it's because we're making the decision to accept textspeak in exams. If they're greedy, it's because we've given in to their demands for £150 trainers and thus encouraged the bastard multi-nationals to make more of them. If they're stupid, it's because we've allowed them to spend their days playing on playstations. If they're obese, it's because of what we've fed them. If they have ASBO's, it's because we've given up setting boundaries and teaching consequences for actions. And then we complain about them, honestly.

Yup, can't argue with that.

My mum would have said, 'You are making a rod for your own back with that child!'

Moreover these dysfunctional kids are not happy.

Did anyone else see the 'That will Teach 'em' when kids went back to a secondary modern school? They also had to do scout and guide activities. At the start they were all pulling faces about how 'naff' it was, but in the end they bloody enjoyed being kids!

I think there is so little future for younger people now?

I am 22 so not a teen anyone but you know...
My nursing degree at the moment seems that it will be worth nothing, my partner who works hard and has good reference and an IT qualification (below degree level though) can barely get a job above minimum wage, we can't afford a car, had we not had inheritance we would never be able to afford a house, my GCSEs A'Levels and degree have been continually devalued and undermined. What can we do? I am hoping for the future and I work very hard but I do wonder if my generation has no optmism for the future any more what is the point in working hard? Its so hard to get anywhere now - even if you do make the sensible choices.

I don't think it is quite that. I think that it is that, coupled with a general lack of respect and an expectation that they deserve the h=good things in life withiut working for them. For some

My parents grew up in the 30s, they grew up in hard , grinding powerly, no shoes or food type poverty. They had few choices, and little open to them, they both went into factory work,. But they both had imense self respect and pride, worked bloody hard and did, against the odds better themselves.

I'm sick to tallking to kids who just expect to 'become famous like Jade goody'. They don't expect to work. they expect to get it all given to the on a plate, and get disruptive when they don't get their way.

True MB I think its my personal middle class frustration I did all the right stuff and I am still a bit stuffed

Hopefully some of my generation will do ok with our children!

My friend has just qualifed as an english teacher, they had to do a letter to someone explaining what they wanted their job to be, she said that 5 of them wanted to be supermodels. These are 15 year olds!!

The girls want to be models, or 'singers', and when you say, 'Oh what band are you in' they look at you as if you are mad. They can't play and instrument and they don't sing in a band, but someone is going to make them famous.

They boys want to be footballers. They don't play in the school teams, you understand, they will just 'get picked up'

In my experience, the kids in the bands, and in the teams, all want to be Vets or medics or teachers!

The single thing that sets apart the high achiveing kids in the school that I work in is how many things they do outside of school. It isn't class or race, or gender, it is how many things they like doing. I feel it is the case of 'The devil makes work for idle hands'

Smurfgirl, it takes time to get security and a decent wage - I don't think the majority of even my parents' generation would have expected to afford a car in their early twenties, for example, and very few of the people I knew did.
If you do a degree you are inevitably delaying the time when you can earn properly by a few years, though I agree it sucks that there is so little you can do without a degree these days and you are then loaded with debt before you've even started out.

Depressing about all those wannabe supermodels, isn't it?

I think that's why Simon Cowell is a necesary evil isn't he. He's doing the nation a favour by telling all those talentless fantasists that they are never going to be stars.

And they are shocked by the revelation. I'm sure we had more of a hold on reality...

"In my experience, the kids in the bands, and in the teams, all want to be Vets or medics or teachers! "

Interesting!

Serously. my sixthforms are full of goths in bands! That are such fun, and so sweet!

We had some academics come into the school to interview kids on the G and T reg. The single factor that distinguised them fro the rest of the kids was the number of after school activities that they did. Cause or effect? I don't know. I do know that 'busy' kids, that is kids who are doing activities of their choice, are happy kids, and productive kids.

Ahh I was an after school activity queen (although I did quit the clarinet to go to the pub every Friday instead ) that explains my focus!

Have been shocked by what my friend has told me about the youth of today

I was under the impression that kids on the continent were more likely to hang out with each other than they are over here. I think the difference is that they probably have a family meal first and that they are more likely to have nice weather to hang out in. I would be interested in what other people with more of experience of this would say (franca 70?), but I thought there was far more of a tradition of teenagers hanging out on scooters in for instance Italy. Maybe they are not seen as so threatening, and they are probably less likely to trying to drink till they are sick.

I teach secondary up to 18 years old. Majority of kids are great, polite, aware, very worried about the environment.
In my experience horrid parent=horrid kids.A lot of this seems to come from parents who encourage kids to "stick up for themselves in an aggressive manner. I'm sure every teacher has had to put up with being savaged by horrible parent on parents evening..There are a few exceptions but very few. The behaviour of kids reflects the parents.
I am sick of all this whining by politicians about youth of today.
Most of them are great in my experience, and are very aware about things. I wish someone would give teenagers more credit for what they do, instead of knocking them all the time.

When I was in France in the summer we went out for a drink one night and sat next to a table of fairly rowdy lads.

They were doing all the usual showing off/late teen things but when the waitress came to take their order they all got icepops!

Their Scottish equivilents would have been on the Bucky before they even got there and would definitely have been ordering pints. Then at least one of them would have been sick... Ah, my experience of a long hot summer in Glasgow.

Mind you, the same goes for groups of 17, 27, 37 year olds round my way . If it's been a dry spell the streets are awash with vom.