Kids...

Posted this in the "What Annoyed Me Thread", but I thought it might make for an interesting discussion.

Stupid "wannabe" gang bangers. These little twerps hand around the mall, pimp walking, with their pants hanging down past their ass. It does not look cool, it makes them look stupid and ignorant. Most of them seem like 16 to 18 year olds with no direction in life, and probably the education of a 6 grader. They walk around in their little gangs, bumping into people and trying to pick fights. What is wrong with the kids these days?

While me and the wife were in the food court, watching them, we decided if there was another mall shooting (we had one at our mall about 2 months ago), we were going to run into the bookstore. We would probably be safe there, because it is too "uncool" to go into the bookstore.

I know that not all kids are like this, and I know that every generation has its own "cool kids", but come on! Why do they think this is cool? Why do they have no direction? How can a parent, allow their child to dress and act like this?

What are you thoughts?

Take your pick:

No father in their home.

Have a father but he too thinks its neat to act like a gangster.

They have never had to work for anything. They have had an endless diet of violence via t.v., video games, and internet access. Their minds are mush without empathy, sympathy, or any thought except selfishness. They will turn on one of their own just as quickly as they would on you. They are cowards of the first rank, however, powerless in the face of true strength.

These little pricks are the least likely to shoot up a mall. They are much more likely to knife/shoot each other. Kinda like fanatic muslims. [Ooops, as a Mod I may have to ban myself for political speak].

You see them everywhere. I remember taking my son to a basketball game and encountered a group of kids that were obviously spoiling for an encounter with authority... tough talk, profanities around little kids, braggadocio, etc. Believe me, if I had done a damn thing to them in reprimand/retaliation for any slight they knew full well that I would be going to jail. And I have no illusions that their parents would have shown up in court to testify against me. These are boys with no fathers. Their fathers are their pre-teen and teen thug friends.

Having said that, if my kid were to have been the recipient of a parent chastising them, berating them for poor behavior, or verbally putting them in line... my first reaction to my son would be "WTF did you do to piss off that parent"?, and get your Sh!t together because you and I are going to go to their house and apologize to them personally. Then again, my kid would NEVER hang out with a crowd of disrespectful teens. So there you go.

I agree with you Matt. I think they have never been taught manners or never have been around a family that encourages education and making something out of your self. At our mall, they are there every day, even when school is in session. They walk around and purposely bump into people, trying to provoke a fight. About 2 months ago, there was a shooting in the mall between a few of them. Fortunately no one was hurt, probably because they were shooting the gun "cool gangsta style" holding the gun sideways.

I live in a very safe part of town, but if you drive down past a certain street, you can just see them all hanging out on the street, and looking for trouble. If there is a shooting or robbery, it happens down there.

This is not an issue of race either. I only say this, because the last time I had a discussion like this, it automatically turned to race. These kids are of all different races; white, black and hispanic.

I am just sick of this. How can any parent, not encourage their children to not want to make something of themselves?

I agree with all of you but instead of us just bitching about it is there anything we can (leagally and morally) do to solve this?

I don't think "we" can. If a parent does not want to be a parent, they are not going to. In order to solve such a problem, it starts with the parents. They need to take an active role in the lives of their children. They need to encourage them to go to school, and pay attention in school. They need to look into the kind of friends they have. They need to pay attention to what these kids watch and do.

A short stint in the Army or anything similar, would hopefully sort them out, but then, they'd probably cry for mommy!

Btw, I do not in any case, mean to drop any kind of trouble on the lap of the Army, Navy, Air Force etc...not fair, maybe 6 months in a tough jail?

LIke we call them c*nts here in the UK, NEDS! Sorry wannabes, who think that they actually are something cool, when they're no more cool than a well used pair of diapers!

Much like what we call boy racers in Sweden, diaper hunters...

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:

I am just sick of this. How can any parent, not encourage their children to not want to make something of themselves?

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I agree with all of the above. Even when I was a teen, I still thought the kids who acted like this (nowhere near as many as there are nowadays) were idiots. Mostly, though, they act this way because they know there's not going to be any repercussions. They know their parents don't care, because their parents were probably raised the same way, by overindulgent and/or negligent parents themselves, and therefore have no sense of responsibility. Their parents may also be using their kids (subconsciously?) in the hopes that somewhere a Matt-character will actually hold their little angel accountable for what they're doing, and therefore maybe damage their self-esteem or (worst case) rid the world of one more roach, at which point the frivolous lawsuits start flying around faster than a junebug in a hurricane. These parents are not in it to raise responsible kids, they're in it for what they, the parents, can get out of it. Its the whole "me" entitlement-generation at its absolute worst, and quite frankly, I don't see an end to it anytime soon. At least not one that doesn't involve an extended obituaries section in the local papers. Sure, someone coming along and taking an interest in individual kids' lives, giving them a role model to look up to and a good, swift kick in the keester would help....but there are far more "kewl" kids than there are good role models, and the trick would be to catch the knuckleheads while they still have some sense of pride and self-worth and the capability of crawling out of the lobsterpot they're in. You can do everything to help these kids become mature, responsible adults...but if they don't want to, you're just farting in the aforementioned hurricane.

alcohol and drugs, especially hard drugs are much more prevelant nowdays, i work in mental health and we are seeing more young kids that are results of bad trips. We will get them in batches too, right now we have 3 kids , no connection to each other all in on bad trips with cocaine, cops are telling us theres a bad batch of coke out there right now

Drugs play a part, but I don't believe that drugs are the causal factor, but rather are another symptom. Virtually all of our woes are related children born out of wedlock or to single parents. I read a statistic just this weekend that 44% of children are being raised in a single parent household. Society is pushing hard to encourage the acceptance of single parenting to be the norm. It is a tragic shame and we are going to pay for it for generations if things don't begin to right themselves.

When I was in school, I was told that I was one of the few in my class, with both parents still together...

Don't get me started when trying to discuss todays, errrmmm.....sound, noise that they want to call music...
Think that they're all that mega big musicians....

Can they read notes? No!
Can they play an instrument? Eerrmmm....no!
Will any of them be remembered after their death, for their contribution to music? Fat chance! More likely they'll be remembered for making people deaf, causing severe headaches and the use of some unpleasantly strong language, together with explaining their rubbish..

Back to some grown up rockabilly to calm me nerves!

I really hate closed mindedness when it comes to music. Don't me wrong, I can't stand hip hop, rap or techno, but there is plenty of good music out there.

1. Music is a whole other discussion. Doesn't really play a part in this discussion. If you want to discuss that, start a thread.

2. I do however have to point out, that it is nothing but your opinion. The are tons of great bands that have come out since the 60's. There are tons of great bands out today. It is not all noise. There are tons of great bands that will be remembered after they are gone.

3. Rockabilly is not everything, is not the only thing. Open your ears and be more open minded about music.

In closing, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one..."

DerAdlerIstGelandet said:

I really hate closemindedness when it comes to music. Don't me wrong, I can't stand hip hop, rap or techno, but there is plenty of good music out there.

1. Music is a whole other discussion. Doesn't really play a part in this discussion. If you wan't to duscuss that, start a thread.

2. I do however have to point out, that it is nothing but you opinion. The are tond of great bands thst have come out since the 60's. There are tons of great bands out today. It is not all noise. There are tons of great bands that will be remembered after they are gone.

3. Rockabilly is not everything, is not the only thing. Open your ears and be more open minded about music.

In closing, "Opinions are like assholes, everyone has one..."

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I do apologise pal...
Should have mentioned that was regarding to drum and base, house, rave and whatever it's called...

1. Already have...

2. I know, Animals, The Who, T-Rex, The Zombies, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick Tich, just to mention a few other that I like...there others as well from the 70's, 80's...

3. Have to admit though, 'we' have the coolest cars!

Do like a few 'tunes' with ACDC, love the Metallica version of Whiskey In the Jar, don't know which I like best, that one or Thin Lizzy...

Hmmmmm.....am I an arshole now?

As you can see, got an pretty open mind when it comes to music, just not certain parts of it...

Pint?

PS. Forgot, effing loooove ZZ Top!

Well from a kids perspective,

Most of its origins probably lie in rap music, Dr. Dre, 50 cent, Eminem (not so much so), and others who promote this sort of 'thug life'. Then you mix in drugs and people wanting to fit in you get these groups that have their pants around their ankles.

Also, relating to my brother, people who use hard drugs, before their brain is fully developed, stopped the growth of their brain. So my 17 year old brother does not think like a 17 year old and it was seen with his immature and whiney ways. So someone like my brother simply could not be convinced that making something of yourself was better than wasting time with his so called 'friends'. He wanted to be cool because having school and a future is not cool he continued running with the wrong crowd.

The Economy also can be a factor, a lot of families see two parents working now which leaves a ton of idle time for kids, and boredom leads to experimentation with drugs, alcohol, and other negative things.

Lucky13 said:

I do apologise pal...
Should have mentioned that was regarding to drum and base, house, rave and whatever it's called...

1. Already have...

2. I know, Animals, The Who, T-Rex, The Zombies, Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick Tich, just to mention a few other that I like...there others as well from the 70's, 80's...

3. Have to admit though, 'we' have the coolest cars!

Do like a few 'tunes' with ACDC, love the Metallica version of Whiskey In the Jar, don't know which I like best, that one or Thin Lizzy...

Hmmmmm.....am I an arshole now?

As you can see, got an pretty open mind when it comes to music, just not certain parts of it...

Pint?

PS. Forgot, effing loooove ZZ Top!

Click to expand...

I forgive you Jan...

Ya'll forgot the Zeppelin!

I was always on the wrong side of the cool guys throughout my entire school life so never had to try and fit in with them. (We had a mutual understanding - I thought they were d!ckheads, and they thought I was. Trouble was there were more of them than me...)

The pants round the ass thing was in fashion here last year too, till a 'famous' (ie cool for 2 minutes) young 'performer' (he can't sing overly great, and openly admits it) pointed out that the origins of the fashion he had also previously followed started out in the prisons - aparently it is how the poofters advertise themselves! Within a week of his interview being aired on TV the number of people sporting that stupid fashion noticably decreased, and it's practically non existant now!

Chris, great thread though I'm late to this.
1. It starts with the parents and the hazy line between abuse and disipline. By todays standards all of our parents were child abusers. My mother gave me a smack BEFORE we went into the store just in case I was thinking of doing anything. If a child does something wrong today and a parent smacks him/her and leaves any kind of mark it is assult and abuse and you're arrested. Any wonder parents ignore misbehavior. When my daughter was 7YO she disappeared for over 4 hours then came strolling home. After huggs and kisses came a smack across her butt for not telling us where or when she was leaving. I did this in the front yard. Within 5 minutes 4 squad cars arrived with 8 cops and DCFS was a minute later. Wife and I were taken into the house while Juilee was examined and questioned by cops and DCFS. A small red mark was discovered on her butt. Took almost a year to clear myself of child abuse charges. Do you think my daughter ever forgot the power she had just ben handed?
2. Schools are between a rock and a hard place. They used to stand "In Loco Parentis" and could displine in the same way as a parent. Then the courts decided that Children have the same rights as an adult. Over and over schools drum into their heads "If anyone hurts/touches you call the police or tell us". In my day "being sent to the principal's office was a horrible thing, the board of education hung on the wall. Nowadays it is nothing, a harsh word will usher in an angry parent . Fail a student, it's not his/her fault, the bad teacher did not properly engage the child in learning and can be sued in court for not doing his/her job by the student. Result all A's ans B's, happy children happy parents and colleges have 80% of incomming freshmen in remedial classes. I have no idea why.
So the Mall Punks are well versed in THEIR RIGHTS. Their clothes reflect prison attire where size/fit are unimportant and belts are forbidden. That does come from types of music which glorify violent acts and Gangsta-life.
I personally love Willie's song: Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street, for all the people to see

It disappeared from a town in Florida also, when the older white guys started doing it too. I will see if I can find the article, it's a hell of a laugh!