Young People: What is With the Attitude?

Teenagers have yet to see just how big this world is and then a time in all of our lives occurs, the one where we begin to think how small the world is. An endless seam of confusion that even adults can't fully comprehend, yet we want teenagers to grasp it all.

When a teenager doesn't thank you for opening the door for him, who's the adult? Psychology 101 says that you either understand that you thought the world revolved around you when you were his age or you quit opening doors for our youth. Give them a tast of their own medicine. Afterall, they can get the door for themselves.

Complaining about not having anything fun to do - they need constant stimulation. Three or more things at once. Ever watch them play video games. There is so much going on in a video game, I got my butt kicked by a six year old because I couldn't remember the combinations of buttons for every possible move I could make. So, kids are bored. Give them more options. Take advantage of the energy and potential to grow.

None of us have everything we want (Bill Gates excluded). Kids express themselves differently.

No one respects them. We make that abundantly clear. They can't vote. We don't really trust them to drive. We double guess ourselves when we leave them home for an evening. Much deserved, we were the same way. Every time they express their opionion, they might hear something like, "What do you know?" We invade every aspect of their lives for our own gratification, cartoons aren't even theirs anymore.

That was a pretty good exercise in seeing it their way. I agree that I get annoyed at the blatant signs of adolescence. But, I was there. I had all the answers once. I just wonder where they went now.

I've got a free day, sort of, and watching "The Lifestyles of Celebrity Children". It's terrifying.

John Travolta takes his kids on an around the world summer vacation to Italy, South Africa, Ireland and Malta, on their private Boeing 747. His 4 year old, when flying commercial for the first time, asked "Who are all of these people?"

Russell Simmons shelled out close to a million dollars on his 2 year old daughters' birthday party complete with circus tent and actors dressed as animals. And Cristal for the parents.

Madonna's 8 year old daughter has her own personal fashion stylist and Angelina Jolie dresses her 3 year old in 100.00 jeans and custom vintage rock t-shirts.

Puffy's 10 year old sports a $170,000 diamond encrusted cross.

Can't wait to see how these kids turn out. It will be interesting because altho the parents are showering them with all of this junk, and the elistist attitude to go along with it, they may also manage to teach them about respect, compassion, thoughtfulness and the act of thinking outside oneself. Maybe.

We'll see...

That is strange to hear E.
I wonder, .. do these rich parents feel these high proced trinkets are necessary?
90% of the worlds population lives with out a personal stylist... maybe only ownes 2-3 real diamonds and they are usually not on a single piece of jewlery.. and most of them rarely fly.
I think that behavior also teaches them to distance themselves from other people.
they grow up in a family where these things are common, they will seek these things out in other people because they will havethat in common.
Talk about a small social circle.

Anyone who was around during the "I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar" days remembers when men were berated for such insensitive behavior as holding open doors and giving up their seat on mass transit.

Now bras are made from non-flammable material and nobody treats us nice and we're still only paid something like 70 cents for every dollar.

I still hold doors for people, and, upon the principle which i had inculcated into me as a child (with the salutary intensifier of the back of my grandmother's hand when warranted) . . .

. . . i hold doors for everyone, young or old, male or female, hale and hearty, the lame, the halt and the blind . . .

Thirty years ago, i did it just to piss the feminists off . . .

your point wasnt missed...

but i thought that line was great.

Me too. It's just....nice to do so....

That, and i never know if the shade of my grandmother might not be lurking around the corner, with a broom in her hand . . .

Piercings are the least of the concerns I have with teenagers. Anytime anyone is like "did you see that kid?"...(the one with green hair, piercings everywhere, baggy pants, etc...) I just shrug and figure they could be doing much worse.

Four-ton SUVs updated every three years, 42-inch plasma screen TVs, increasingly servile-but-pampered adults well-paid but unsatisfied in work, wondering why they themselves don't get respect. Even when parents aren't well-to-do, fat, ostentatious grown-ups are always visible, on TV and in "real life."

If everyone went back just to 1970s stuff, we'd think ourselves horribly impoverished.

I'd say it ain't just kids who are feeling entitled.

An adult who works for what they have is one thing. A kid who has everything and has done nothing to earn it is another. Yep, I've got an SUV and a big-screen tv but I've worked for these things. No one has given them to me while I did nothing but sit on my ass with a bad attitude and my hand out for more. I was taught to work for what I wanted in this life. It seems that alot of young people today are taught to just demand what they want or throw full-fledged tantrums and make life miserable for everyone in the house until they get it.

And a lot of grownups go neck-deep in debt to finance their lifestyle. Working for something and sacrificing for something ain't always the same thing.

Anywho, I ain't saying that the comparison is entirely valid, but I think there is a definite link between our increasingly consumeristic and image-obsessed culture -- driven by the demographic with the greatest purchasing power -- and kids' acting like little punks.

I hear ya patiodog. Loud and clear. And there is a connection, I'm sure of it. But I still say that working for what you want and having it handed to you on a silver platter is the big difference here.

I'll tell you another reason i think alot of kids have no respect for their parents. Again, something I've witnessed over and over again. Many parents don't make it stick like they should. You make a deal with your kid and promise them this if they deliver that. The kid fails to live up to their end of the deal but pitches a boogie to get what they were promised anyway and the parents, who can't bare the boogie, give in. So the kid eventually learns that the parent is weak and all they've got to do is push the right buttons to get whatever they want. How is a kid expected to have respect for parents who are so easily manipulated? Who don't stand up for themselves? Who don't lay down the groundrules and stick to them?

Shoot. With my father, I could pitch a boogie from now until dooms day but I'd better do it in the privacy of my room. And I'd better not be too noisy about it either.

I compltely agree with that E.
You see it all the time. There are even talk shows who glamorise that behavior in kids ( Maury? Springer?)
Somewhere parents learned that they were not good parents if they didnt give thier children what they asked for. No matter how much financial burden it created.
Now that it has come common place for children/teens to bully thier parents into saying YES all the time, they wonder WHY and where this came from..

Re: Young People: What is With the Attitude?


My dear lady... the village of the pyramid builders in egypt had the same thing carved on the walls as graffiti.

Unless mankind's entire existance has been a downward spiral of degeneracy (and I don't rule that out), you may be looking backwards on your youth with the kind eyes of forgiveness.

Teen-agers with Money
American kids are spoiled & have been for a long time. The super-abundance of our country's wealth has resulted in social obesity. Among poorer people there is more interdependence and hence better manners to facilitate interaction. In Los Angeles, for instance, the strongest, tightest extended families are almost categorically non-white and poor. There's also the fact that we come from an outlaw culture derived from the rugged individualist of the pioneer days. It's hip to be against adults (read: authority). And kids are smart (studies show that IQ, despite the failure of our school system, has actually increased on average over the past few generations); they know that their jobs at KFC or Mickey D's don't matter; they have been trained to want better than a managerial job at a fast food store. Add to that the fact our youth-obsessed culture has made idols of the people in our society who have accomplished the absolute least and you have a perfect recipe for adolescent contempt for anything perceived as bowing to the slow, honorless march toward old age and irrelevance.

I hope celebs kids do turn out alright.
We only hear of the materialism in their lives, never the hugs or punishments they get.
Dont forget Madonna used to work in Dunkin Donuts so she had to work hard for everything she has, and I have no doubt that she has taught her kids values.

personally i think you're all starting to sound like old misers (in a nice way ) i'm quite sure you were all polite and friendly (if a little moody) when you were teenagers, but that doesnt mean everyone was the same, i'm sure you had your thugs and hooligans and just as many snotty, angry, spoiled little so and so's as my generation has (or had, i'm 20 now so i s'pose i dont count, i could be "twenteen" for the sake of argument) i've always been as polite as i could, friendly and outgoing, i've never been rude or set out to hurt people, i have manners and help others, i'd hold a door open for you and if you didn't do it for me just because you think young people thesedays are little bas**** s i wouldn't be impressed. but on the other hand i'm from a pretty rough area and 99% of the people i grew up around were assholes so i understand that there are a lot of people my age who aren't that nice. it just kinda winds me up when we all get lumped with them because we are young, people locking car doors when i walk past, or the looks i get walking past people at night etc.

theres my rant for the day, i feel better now, would anyone like a brew?