Why Is It Many British Kids Today Are Being Raised As Yobs?
21. Feb, 2010 
28 Comments
I have just returned from from a break in Bulgaria where we spent some time in a small town on the coast.
It was a pleasure to walk down the street and find kids entertaining themselves without swearing, smoking, drinking, or vandalising property. Indeed they were both polite and respectful to both their parents and strangers as well as funny and pleasent to talk to.
This contrasts to the day we got back when I returned to my home in Britian to find one kid booting a football against the side of my house damaging the outside wiring, and another throwing rocks against the garden gate for no reason.
I actually live in a fairly decent area as well so is this just the way British society is going?
I don’t want to tar all Biritish kids with the same brush, but does this country have any future?
For the record I am 27 and not a boring old fogey.
It’s been going like this for some time. FTR – my son is 27 and I’ve been aware of it since we moved here. It’s a bit of a vicious circle – kids are treated with such disrespect here – it is quite clear they are second class citizens – they are not included in our society. We ban them from pubs, movies (who willingly watches an under 18 movie?), discoes, nightclubs. We provide them with no play areas – teenagers hang around with nothing to do but beg for alcohol etc etc. We expose them to drugs – we pay lipservice to our disapproval of drugs but it is very trendy – and oursociety enjoys all the things that a few years ago were considered debased. Kids want to aspire to these freedoms too.
We have done away with the nuclear family, provided a social welfare state, working mothers and absent fathers all mean that kids are seriously neglected. Our children’s ambitions are to have sex, do drugs and be treated as the grownups we ourselves are the example of. We’re very aware of OUR children’s rights and the rights of society come second.
Recently I rasied the questio of whether or not cctv should be used to schools to show parents how their kids behaved in class. Most people were appalled at the idea. Those same people will not support the school when it tries to kick naughty kids out.
So yes, you’re right. The kids are being rasied as yobs. But it isn’t their fault – it is OUR fault. Our fault because we let them get away with it, our bad examples, our bad planning, our bad discipline etc etc.
Wow…I’m glad I read this… now I have a new appreciation of Fort Smith, Arkansas!! Moved here a year ago and have yet to lock my truck or apartment. No need to. Sounds like Britain is a crime center…LOL Sorry yall have to live around trash like that.
PS> Fort Smith has a population of 80,000 +
Because they have chav parents who are smoking weeds and speed balling so children watch and learn.
I’m an old fogey.
I hate the way kids today behave and can only blame the general fall in standards.
I hate to be the sterotypical old f”rt, but education is failing, parents fail to teach kids manners or the proper way to behave and will not punish them for wrong doing.
It makes me laugh when I read, as in one answer here, that kids have nothing to do. Truth is, I think, is that they have too much to do. What with all the computers and technology around them. I may sound like an old fogey but when I was a kid we didn’t have them and, yes, at times I got bored but we still made our own entertainment without causing too much, I hope, trouble. I did play out in the street and my ball did go in otehr people’s gardens and I suppose I did annoy some with my antics. I couldn’t see that then but I was a kid. Why the yobbish behaviour of so many kids these days. Well take a look at the influential programmes on TV. If you look at all the soap operas inundating the channels what do you see on them? Adults with a “screw you, I want and I will have” attitude. Too many people with bad attitudes are given glamorous status. Look at Big Brother and X factor auditions. The message from these is, behave outrageously and we will glamourise you. Ok, rebels have often been popular but these days it is seen to be the way to succeed. With that in mind is it any wonder we have the social problems we do?
You’re worried, I’m 44 and scared. The main reason I believe is the cessation of corporal punishment in the educational system.
People always assume that the answer to questions like this are not simple and that the government will have to spend millions of pounds on think tanks to somehow solve the problem over many decades, but to me its simple!
When I was a kid, If I threw rocks or whatever, a witnessing neighbour or resident would come out and get me! If they didn’t give me a good hiding there and then, I would be dragged back to my parents and my parents would punish me. I rarely misbehaved because I knew there would be consequences.
These days, kids are so well aware of their rights. They do what ever they like because they know there will be no consequences. There was an article in the paper just the other day in which a women who tried to tell a group of yobs off who were outside her house, was in the end the one cautioned by the police for swearing at the yobs! WTF?!? And even if the parents find out, the parents usually don’t give **** these days.
Even when these youths get to an age where they can be arrested, it doesn’t matter because there are no punishments. My stepfather works driving prisoners to court, and he says they just don’t care. Its nothing to them. He sees the same people going to court week after week and they never get prison, just small fines, community service and they laugh at it.
Did you know that in this country you are more likely to go to prison for not paying your council tax than for stabbing a stranger in the street? The law is a joke and geared towards Council profit and nothing more.
So the answer is simple- punish the little bastards. But with all the lefties in this country we all know that’s never gonna happen. I intend to get the hell out of this country like hoards and hoards of other Brits and leave the liberal hippies to get beaten and stabbed by the very people they are trying to protect.
most of the parents of these kids were teens when they had them and now that the kids are of age, the parents are living the lives they missed out on and not bothering with teaching right from wrong. Vicious circle. Scum.
Kids watch to many American films. They get the impression that being a gangster and commiting crime gives them status. They try to act like American Kids. It also comes down to Parents not giving disipline and letting their young kids stay out till late hours. Also in Britain, teachers in school can’t shout at their pupils, and are scared to take action incase they are accused of child abuse. The government doesn’t do anything either. If a child commits a crime, they give them a warning and thats in. In countries like your saying, Bulgaria, the kids still have respect foe elders, and wont mess about as they know what their parents will do to them.
Parents, the British Govt, police, teachers should take more action against kids with bad bahaviour. ASBO’s are a joke. We need something more severe.
The problem is discipline and the media, but also giving them things to do. It seems that kids now are sat in front of a tv from the age of 0 till they are 15. Then the parents let them out. During that time they are carried from place to place, and they are only shown how to behave on programs like Eastenders. This is not how they should behave.
The solution is that parents have to take responsibility and the law should act if they are not able to. Unfortunately the law is an *** a lot of the time, and once these kids enter the court system then they are lost forever.
When I was at school (I’m 30) you respected the teacher, and if you didn’t you were thrown out and sent to the headmaster. He would either discipline you or suspend you or expel you. If you were expelled there was no appeal just goodbye. Now it is little Jonny who is the victim and who has rights – forget that. Teach him a lesson and not only him but all his friends will know about it
Because they are 2nd or even 3rd generation yobs. They are out of control because their parents have no idea how to be parents – because *their* parents were rubbish too.
Its partly a result of the political landcape of 20 years ago – high unemployemnt, bad schools etc etc – and partly because lazy little buggers now get labled as ‘educationally challenged’ instead of beaing *made* to learn.
because there parents are yobs
great in bulgaria is it not, and thats why they are all heading for england as fast as they can.
well lets see,im 31 i went to youth clubs,and had fun,and was hardly any trouble,but today there are no clubs and everything costs money,for swimming it costs over £5 pounds just for my 8 yr old daughter,i live in a respectable area in eastbourne and the kids are not allowed to play ball games so what are they supposed to do????,i have two girls one is 8 and the other is 9 months,why cant the goverment make activities like swimming,drama,football,self defence and other activities free,this migt keep kids of the street and give them some meaning in life rather than hanging out on street corners giving all the mouth and stuff
Its a problem in most countries…yet only the big, important ones get the blame
No future as long as it continues in the vain it is going. These kids are undisciplined. I blame the laziness of the parents and the government for taking away slapping and corporal punishment in schools. They are totally out of control. No point in fining the parents as there is nothing the parents can do so what is the option.
a mirror image of there parents
Yobs who sod about my flat get head butted PDQ.
It is a cultural phenomenon and not British exclusive. US, EU, Latin America and many more large populated cities and or areas have the same problems only with different labels attached to this behavior.
If citizens were able to bear arms this behavior would soon cease and desist. If you and your loved one(s) were walking at night as is your right and of course, there was no police man/woman present and you were able to stop thugs, yobs or whatever from assaulting you or your family by use of FORCE it wouldn’t take long for this behavior to stop.
I have to agree with you on this. I spent many years in the navy and travelled to many country`s.
And for some reason the kids (not all) in this country don`t seem to give a toss about anything.
I suppose I am an oldish fogey (53) but I can remember when kids of my time did hang around street corners, did smoke and yes did swear.
But I can`t remember anytime when we sat drinking on street corners or in the park etc….
And we never used drugs – though there were a very small % that did.
Where I live, the kids are not bad except for the atrocious swearing which is even worse than I heard on the messdeck of ships.
When you think that the schoolteachers can no longer do to them what they did to us, the police have their hands tied, and some – not all – parents either don`t have any control over their kids or don`t give a toss anyway.
What a wonderful world isn`t it
I agree with you. the problem in this country is that it has gone far too P.C. Too much power has been given to kids and taken away from parents and the authorities. I have a problem with a gang of youths hanging around outside my flat drinking about a litre of vodka or whiskey a day. The excuse is that there is nothing for them to do. This is a load of rubbish. there is a decent park around the corner with a football pitch, basketball court. not far away there is a swimming pool and ice rink. they are just lazy.
British kids “these days” have no where to play because the governments over the last 30 years have sold off the playing fields.
They get moved on by the police for doing exactly as their parents did standing out side of the local shops.
Childhood has virtually been crimialised, too noisy, you get an ASBO. To many of you, you get moved on and told to disperse. Mis-behave you get locked up.
Soon kids will be sent to prision to be assilimated and released when they are fully functioning, emotionless adults.
Show some tolerance and actually remember what is was like when you were a teenager.
They are not being raised as yobs,they are barely being raised at all and they are turning into yobs as a result. Crap parents who are possibly 2nd or 3rd generation crap parents,no discipline allowed in school anymore and the police can’t touch them really till they are over 18. What we need is a good sized-war we can send them all off to get slaughtered in, I think the French are having similar problems due to youth unemployment perhaps we can come to an arrangement with them……
I too went to Bulgaria also and agree you can walk around without feeling intimidated. It’s down to the parents to chastise their children, I see kids running around at 11 at night, they look about 10, so where are the parents.
YES
without a doubt.
i agree with you 100%,im not a fogey either,its an underclass and nobodys bothered.
i know!! they are so naughty…the other day a kid threw a rock at me?!! for no reason.
i think they are little sh*ts but, as my very rational flatmate pointed out, they are probably really bored with nothing to do and there parents cant be assed to teach them right from wrong. not that its all the parents fault… i do think that there is nothing for them to do though- there is too little emphasis on sports at school and extra-curricular activities.
and they need diciplining.
What the F*ck, you can not say that, you are a generalist and I suggest you have not thought this through, you can not compare the UK kids to the Bulgarians kids, for a start you cannot even begin to reconcile the economic boundaries that exist between these two communities.
Kids are innocent, they do things whilst young and learn what is right and wrong, the kid that plays ball against your wall may one day realise that he was damaging your wiring, do you think that has occurred to him/her, I think the kid has more to worry about these days!
There are a lot of social pressures that exist on kids in our society today, so what that kid was throwing rocks, how do you know could be disabled or something… you are pinikety and you may say you are 27 but from the attitude you have displayed I’d say at best you live the existence of a 65 year old, hell why don’t you just retire to Bulgaria I know you can buy houses over their for as little as £4000. If any kid plays football against your wall and ruins it, I’m sure its that cheap you can rebuild another for half the price… you really are a drama queen Mr So called 27 year old!