Why teenagers aren't what they used to be (UK)

I guess like any relationship people can meet at a young age and it lasts a lifetime.

I totally disagree that women had a better life in the past, I wonder how many men, particulalry those who say they did, would feel about being the sole provider for their wife and children? A guy who I sometimes meet walking his dog, has been looking after his wife after a knee op and says he'd rather work twelve hours down a mine than be a housewife, even these days with labour saving devices, like washing machines. He said he dosen't know how his wife or other women every manage to remember everything that needs doing, he said he's never had to do so much multi-tasking in his life.

Well theres at least two of us to fly the flag for women now.

I think young people lack defined coming of age points now, I think you should have all your rights when you're 18, adult minimum wage, voting, everything. Something to show that you're an adult, not some inbetween state, I think the easiest way of doing this would be for everyone to be Master or Miss until they're 18 and then become Mr or Mrs, no messing about.

JessaBee said:

Unrelated but I love The Specials. I like Too Much Too Young, I'm kind of addicted to that song.

I saw them live twice in the 1970s/80s along with The Selector (Mecca aka Locarno Ballrooms, Portsmouth).

They were brilliant.

I love that song too 

From my own experience, I was too well looked after; as a young boy. There was the old patronising comment of, "I think the World of you!"

I didn't get out there, and about with people.

Interesting, I didn't know that. It's not great now but I'm glad things are better than they were then. Hopefully things will continue to improve.

Unrelated but I love The Specials. I like Too Much Too Young, I'm kind of addicted to that song.

JessaBee said:

Really I feel like it was better in past times when you left school early and seemingly got a job straight away. In the early 80s my dad said he left school and got a job more less straight away but by the 90s it was getting harder to find work.

I really do feel sorry for the newer generations.

Unemployment was actually far worse than now in the 1980s and in fact in modern times I think that was the worst decade of all.

A lot of the music of that time came out of the abysmal state of the country

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unemployment_in_the_United_Kingdom

See UB 40 the band and The Specials Ghost Town.

Getting a job at 14??? Wow. I wish my grandparents were still alive and I would have asked them when they left school and started working.

That's definitely not something that's done today or even allowed to be done. I'm sure a lot of teens would have loved to leave school early and started working :D myself included!

I didn't leave school until 17, I'm a 97 baby. After school I struggled to find a job despite everyone at school saying good grades will get you a good job... I got the grades but there was no work anywhere nearby. And then when I did find work and applied I never got through the interviews, my autism and anxiety shining through...

I left school at 17 and didn't get my first job until I was 26. Nearly 10 years of applying, mostly rejection and then doing interviews and being told I'll be considered.

I'm working in a children's nursery, no grades were required and I didn't study for it... I had a DBS check and that was it. The employer and staff there all accept and understand my autism, offering support when needed.

Really I feel like it was better in past times when you left school early and seemingly got a job straight away. In the early 80s my dad said he left school and got a job more less straight away but by the 90s it was getting harder to find work.

I really do feel sorry for the newer generations.

After school they are on their own with few jobs available.

Some things never change...

Internet is cool for interacting with others and perhaps some trouble is lessened but online is a lot of trouble itself because it's abused and not really well policed.

Just so people are aware, I'm not being judgemental.

I don't have any teenagers in my life right now (apart from online).

When I was young people were always saying to me 'these young people today, they don't know how well off they are'.

Obviously, each generation differs.

Personally though I was looking at this from an anthropological point of view.

Society is changing a very great deal because of the internet alone, besides the many other factors including wealth.

In fact, when I think back over the generations of my family and how teenage years differ, especially with regard to working age, wealth seems to be the deciding factor.

Teenagers are never "what they used to be".

Society is always changing. And so do people. It's nothing new.

ahhh.... i dunno... place i worked had a guy who was only 16 working there... or 17... he was paid full adult pay too, but i think they may have mistaken him for being older as he had a thick beard. although they did know as they panicked as they sent him on this job a kid his age wasnt allowed to do then realised he was too young and hid that he did that position to save their own jobs.

I agree with you.

The new young generation isn't in any way like we used to be. I am 50 and looking at how teenagers behave and live their daily lives I would not have gotten away with even a tenth of it. Popular science speaks of the divergence between Generation X (those born between around 1965 and 1980) and Generation Z (born between 1995 and 2015).

As Gen X children, respect towards others, and primarily adults (stranger or not), was not a personal choice. You listened to the listen, to heeded criticism by strangers on the street. If you stayed at a friend's place, you did as your friend's mother said like she was your own mother. Talking back to an elder was considered a crime worthy of punishment. There were rules! And if you broke them you got punished. Goodies were taken away, parties were cancelled, you got grounded, in worst case you got a slap. Not a beating, a slap. Our dinner had two options - take it or leave it. If you refused to eat your meal, you knew what you'd be having for your next one. You shared a television and your parents controlled the remote. If you wanted something you had to earn it by good behaviour and helping out in the house, or you looked for a Sunday job. You dressed appropriately when you went out, even if it was to the shops. You did not treat every place like a playground or as your own. You actually used your eyes to give way to people and keep yourself out of danger. 

Today, Generation Z and Alpha kids are chalk and cheese. They grew and grow up on entitlement. People need to get out of their way. If they don't get what they want they get mental health issues, and their parents are abusers. If they have bad grades then it's the teachers' fault. They feel equal to elders, even superior because they can master Social Media and AI and they cannot. They don't need to heed advice because TikTok knows better. They can be physically abusive to adults because they know as children they cannot get prosecuted. If you even think of touching them, they will tell their friends until someone feels it's cool to be a whistleblower to call Social Services on you. They live most of their time in a world of digital anonymity that gets the meanest out of them. Kids are not protected, they are overprotected. So much, that in my opinion, they need to be protected from themselves.

TheCatWoman said:

when their legal rights were practically non existant.

Absolutely.

I've made this point here in the past and have been shouted down about it.

There are a few men on this forum who believe that women had a better life in the past and that's what we should return to.

TheCatWoman said:

Marrying at 16 is an iffy one though

My sister had 2 children and was happily married to the same chap all her life.

Tragically, they both died in their 50s.

I think we infantilise young people to much, we keep them as children for way to long, I think saturday jobs are a good thing, it builds experience of a working environment and gives them thier own money.

You can have a baby as soon as you're physically mature enough to do so, whether its a good thing or not is another matter, however I don't think that belittling the maternal instinct in young women is helpful as it's often quite strong.

Marrying at 16 is an iffy one though, I think it's a hangover from the days when women were seen as property to be passed from one man to another and that if a woman wasn't married or at least engaged by the time she was 21 then she was considered "on the shelf" and past it. Think back to the women who were unmarried or widowed in the aftermath of WW1 when questions in parliament were raised about 'the problem of surplus women'. These were women who had little or no prospect if marriage or remarriage in a age when their legal rights were practically non existant.

Governments like cannon fodder, especially when its the lower classes who are doing the dying.

FH ❄️ said:

The are normal checkpoints and should be forced on adolescents before soCiety deteriorates  .due to their lacking will to be responsible 

Are you able to re-phrase this please as I don't think it makes sense?

Either that or the computer inside my head is malfunctioning.

Thanks.

The are normal checkpoints and should be forced on adolescents before soCiety deteriorates  .due to their lacking will to be responsible