Hating on teenagers

[Rageaholic]

This is just my observation, but there seems to be a lot of hating on teenagers. Not just hate but, lack of understanding and lack of respect from adults who expect the same from them.

-They have less rights than adults, yet people constantly complain about how spoiled, undisciplined, and entitled they are.

-They are forced to go to High School with social clichs (sp?), bullying, drug use, all kinds of peer preasure, and zero tolerance policies.

-They are singled out by cops and often abused over incredibly stupid things. (just look up cops vs skaters on youtube and you'll see what I mean).

-Some malls have curfews which ban teens from the mall without adult supervision.

-Any time they complain about something in their life, they are brushed off by "moral" adults. Just look up anything on yahoo answers and most of the time, when teens complain about something, they get told "suck it up" or "that's life". The complaints can be perfectly reasonable, but they are never taken seriously because of their age.

I'm not denying that teens are capible of horrible shit. Some are spoiled brats and can be extremely obnoxious, but like with many other things, I think the bad bunch ruin it for the rest of them. They are put in a hostile and toxic environment (high school), and a lot of the time, the solutions to protect them end up only making it worse for those who are not bad. No wonder there's a high rate of depression in teens.

[DrFaroohk]

Even younger than teens. So many people treat them like are godawful burdens, incapable of making any correct choices and acting like they're all really stupid and undeserving of anything.

Like they even asked to be here in the first place. You treat a house guest who won't leave like that. Not your kids. You wanted the fucking things now act like it.

Then they wonder why the kids grow up all bitter and jaded. Maybe you didn't hate on them enough!

I'm pretty sure somewhere is a list of rules for handling teens. It looks like this:

1) Everything that goes wrong in the teens life is their own fault, regardless of the facts of the incident.

2) Any word spoken by an adult, with regards to a teen, is automatic truth.

3) Any act of self defense, be it from verbal of physical abuse, will be treated as if the teen is committing a federal crime. No regard will be given to others involved in any altercations, including but not limited to bullies, teachers, and pedophiles.

4) Teens are required to take on many responsibilites of adults, and at times which are inconvenient may be required to be held to the same criminal standard as adults. AT NO TIME will the teen be allowed any of the privileges of adulthood.

Feel free to add.

[fireheart17]

This is just my observation, but there seems to be a lot of hating on teenagers. Not just hate but, lack of understanding and lack of respect from adults who expect the same from them.

-They have less rights than adults, yet people constantly complain about how spoiled, undisciplined, and entitled they are.

-They are forced to go to High School with social clichs (sp?), bullying, drug use, all kinds of peer preasure, and zero tolerance policies.

-They are singled out by cops and often abused over incredibly stupid things. (just look up cops vs skaters on youtube and you'll see what I mean).

-Some malls have curfews which ban teens from the mall without adult supervision.

-Any time they complain about something in their life, they are brushed off by "moral" adults. Just look up anything on yahoo answers and most of the time, when teens complain about something, they get told "suck it up" or "that's life". The complaints can be perfectly reasonable, but they are never taken seriously because of their age.

Out of those points:

1) That would be supposedly because since not all teenagers work 24/7, they're treated like the unemployed. Also whenever something occurs that would typically fall into teenage behaviour, teens are automatically blamed (i.e. graffiti) or rules are put in place simply to make THEIR lives harder.

2) It's spelt cliche (with an accent over the e), and while the zero tolerance crap isn't in place down here, I have learnt that whatever happens in high school can stay with you well into adulthood.

3) I can add to this list: P-Plate drivers (in Australia, at the bare minimum level it's the step between your learners and your full licence-you can drive around solo, but there's a slew of restrictions, including among them, a 0.00BAC). Every time something happens regarding a car crash, even if the P-Plater was the victim and not the cause of the crash, the comments instantly pop up out of the woodwork about how young people supposedly can't drive and they start calling for a whole slew of restrictions on young drivers.

4) I really do have to wonder how that works exactly given that some teenagers actually WORK.

5) I'd love to see this being used against those adults who brush off teenage problems: "Oh I just lost my job, what do I do?" "Suck it up, that's life! Isn't that right, after all, that's what you told me!"

[Bloodsoul]

2) It's spelt cliché

I thought Rageaholic was trying to spell clique.

[jackfaire]

Some of my teachers didn't like me because I never treated them like they were better than me. From an early age I treated them as equals. Most respected that but some would get pissed that I wasn't worshiping the ground they walked on.

[Greenday]

I thought Rageaholic was trying to spell clique.

Pretty sure that's the one that was attempted to use.

I see it all the time on my local newspaper's website. There was an article about some kid on a scooter getting hit by a car. The woman stopped asked if he was okay, the kid just kinda nodded his head and the driver took off. Didn't REALLY check to see if he was okay or call the police. Nearly every comment was talking about how stupid teens are for doing stuff like this.

Or every time a teenager crashes, they will all talk about how amazing their generation was and how they NEVER did stuff like sneak out to parties, drink and drive, drive at dangerous speeds. BULLSHIT You're generation sucked too when they were teenagers.

[bara]

My nephew tends to get into a lot of trouble, but I have found that the more I treat him like a young man and not an old kid he behaves better. Luckily he has been trying a lot harder lately and has stayed out of trouble so I was able to 'loan' him my xbox 360. Im hoping that if he still considers it as mine he will treat it better. I know that I tend to treat other peopls belongings better since it betrays trust if I break what is not mine.

I wasnt playing it anyway so it works out for both of us this way. He gets an adult gaming system, they have a wii, and I get to know that the money I shelled out three years ago when I bought it isnt going to waste.

[tropicsgoddess]

There's good teens but the majority unfortunately are the bad eggs that make the good ones suffer. I only hate the stupid teens to be honest.

[Andara Bledin]

No, the majority are [I]not/I] bad - just the majority of the ones that get noticed.

Most kids, like most adults, are pretty generically ok people. Some are douchebags and some are amazing, and the bulk are somewhere in between.

Another thing to be aware of is that kids will react to expectations. If you expect them to act like jerks, they often will act like jerks, because that's what they perceive that you want.

^-.-^

[Beckpatton]

I hate this, well I hate all prejudice in general, why we can't judge people for what they do instead of what they are I will never understand!

I was often referred to as a bush lawyer when I was a teen, I wasn't afraid to stand up for me and my friends when I thought we were being treated unfairly. I wasnt even a problem teen, but even I had a couple letters sent home from school for minor stuff, usually me making noise about the latest anti teen rule! At least my parents always backed me up!

I remember one time at the train station, a couple girlfriends and I were standing there talking, not loitering, but saying goodbye before one had to get a train, another a bus, and I had to cross the street to get to my after school job. We had been stopped for all of 5-10mins, and the security guard tried to move us along! I get it that some teens hang around there and cause trouble, but if he'd taken a proper look he would see that we were just making our goodbyes, instead he just thought, "UH-OH Teenagers standing still, must shoo them away!"

Boy did he cop an earful, and no I didn't just tell him where to go, I simply pointed out what we were doing and asked him why he wasn't shooing away the old ladies 3 feet from us doing the same thing!

Sure there are some shitty kids out there, but there are shitty people in general. Maybe wait for someone to reveal their true colours before you go and assume they are going to be a problem because they are a kid, or have tattoos, or have the 'wrong' skin colour etc etc... Is that too much to ask?

[Rageaholic]

.

3) Any act of self defense, be it from verbal of physical abuse, will be treated as if the teen is committing a federal crime. No regard will be given to others involved in any altercations, including but not limited to bullies, teachers, and pedophiles.

Sometimes they don't even have to fight back, just simply "not complying" is enough to provoke the adults into getting violent. The biggest and stupidest example I can think of is it judge who was filmed beating his daughter for downloading games. For some people, she was at fault for not "bending over the bed", because that somehow provoked him and made him hit her even more. Yeah never mind that the jerkass lost his cool over his daughter reacting on pure survival instincts (who would willfully put yourself in a position where you would be completely defenseless against an oncoming assault?). Then there are those who assume that she somehow had the worst intentions in filming the incident. Like she deliberately set it up just to provoke him so she'll have blackmail material for later. Yeah, I still read comments on that incident just knowing I'll get rage from some of the stupidest comments on the web.

Pretty sure that's the one that was attempted to use.

I see it all the time on my local newspaper's website. There was an article about some kid on a scooter getting hit by a car. The woman stopped asked if he was okay, the kid just kinda nodded his head and the driver took off. Didn't REALLY check to see if he was okay or call the police. Nearly every comment was talking about how stupid teens are for doing stuff like this.

Or every time a teenager crashes, they will all talk about how amazing their generation was and how they NEVER did stuff like sneak out to parties, drink and drive, drive at dangerous speeds. BULLSHIT You're generation sucked too when they were teenagers.

Oh I hate that. Hate it hate it hate it hate it! I even got that from my parents from time to time and it's just so much bullshit.

1. You hear more about it now because there's more media to report it.

2. Teens did stupid shit back then too.

3. You only hear about the stupid teens based on news reports.

No wonder teens rebel.

[DrFaroohk]

Like she deliberately set it up just to provoke him so she'll have blackmail material for later. Yeah, I still read comments on that incident just knowing I'll get rage from some of the stupidest comments on the web.

Yeah I see this a lot...and in fact (quite guiltily) I admit that when someone sets me up like that and provokes me on purpose, I feel like it's their fault. But the truth is that rather it's on purpose or not, a setup or not, there's a line and you don't cross it. It'd be like if my kid said "HIT ME I DARE YOU YOU FAT FUCK!" It's no excuse for me to hit him.

[AdminAssistant]

One thing I'll give Dad credit for was that he'd actually tell stories of all the crazy shit he and his friends did as teens. One of his best friends met his wife after she egged the truck they were in and they chased her to the next town. He made up a CB persona to pull practical jokes on people. That kind of thing. (Of course, his other best friend blew up a car with a homemade cherry bomb, so Dad was actually the good kid of the group.) Granted, this was a generation of young men who knew they'd have to take their 'senior trip' to Southeast Asia eventually, so...yes, they let off steam and as long as nobody was hurt and no property was damaged, the police tended to leave them alone.

Mom tries to play the innocent card, but I know better. Unfortunately, Mom was the youngest, and my aunts were out of the house while Mom was in high school, so they can't tell me any good stories!

[guywithashovel]

It seems that the people who hate on teens the most are the ones who show them the most condescension. I noticed this a lot when I was a teen. I always hated it when people lumped me in with a stereotype that in many cases is not true, so now I try not to show todays teens the same attitude.

[bara]

I always hated it when people lumped me in with a stereotype that in many cases is not true, so now I try not to show todays teens the same attitude.

The sad part is, there are many kids who end up becoming the stereotype because people do lump them into one group.
I dont always blame the kid either, in fact I believe parents hold the most blame. Some kids are bad apples no matter how good a parent is.