What is happening to today's Youth?

[vernaj77]

I was riding the bus the other and a young man about the age of 10 starting using such profanity.  Every other word was the horrible.  I remember growing up if you got caught by a neighbor or someone who knew your parents doing something wrong boy were you in trouble.  Family values really not seen as back in the day.  Wish kids would learn to enjoy their youth.  They will have plenty of time to grow up. smh

[lvstephanie]

I wouldn't blame the kid as much as I would the adults in his life that allow him to learn and use such profanity. I've seen more and more where people seem to be afraid to discipline their children. Sometimes the parents try too hard to be the child's friend instead of their parent -- usually the parent feels like if they're too controlling that they'll either drive the kid away and make them less open to discuss the important things, or that the child will have lower self-esteem. Sometimes parents are afraid that the child will report the parent to some other authority figure claiming that the parent is being abusive (this happens a lot in schools where teachers tend to feel helpless around disruptive students). And sometimes the parents aren't around to offer that aspect of disciplining and parenting. They may live in a single parent household where the parent is too busy working to get food on the table that they cannot spend as much time with their children. This can in turn lead to children acting out just to get some sort of attention, even if its negative attention.

And perhaps it doesn't really have anything to do with his parents. Maybe he just has an older brother that he idolizes and so takes on his brother's use of profanity as well. My neighbors once caught me swearing as I was toddling around the driveway with my plastic lawn mower... I guess after watching Dad start the mower -- monkey see, monkey do -- I pretended to pull the cord a few times and then uttered a swear word before starting to mow again.

[sak4kat]

There are so many things that have changed the personality and character of youth.  Parents having babies without strong foundations in relationships ending in divorce, children raising themselves because the economy has twisted to the point where it is rare to have a stay home parent, parents having babies when they are to young - the list goes on and on.  I'm guilty of trying to be my children's friend and I didn't even realize I was doing it until my now 15 year old said to me when she was 12, "you're Mom and my friend."  Something snapped in me.  I looked at my daughter and told her - I love you with all my heart, and I want us to always have an open relationship as we do now..but there is one thing for you to know and never forget.  Until you are 18 I'm your parent first before friend.  When you are an adult we have the rest of your life to be friends."  The look on my daughters faced was painful.  I'm sure she felt as though I was divorcing her in a way.  It had to be said and more importantly she had to hear it.   

[ilovepatrick]

with both parents working there is no one to guide children, but the state, maybe they are spending to much time in school and activities to learn their parent's values. It is also possible that our generation spend too much time away from our parents that we didnot learn their values.

[swkstudent]

Kids are left alone a lot with many being raised by single mothers or by parents who both work a lot. When the parents are around some aren't doing their job at raising them. Many parents actually curse around and to their kids I see it all the time 

[jmccaskill]

There are many reasons that today's youth are in the condition they are in, speaking in general terms of course. I don't fully buy into the idea of absentee parents (both working) as much as I think that the children are simply not raised with any sense of values during the time that they do have contact with their parents. I know kids that have working parents and are absolute gems. Disciplined, caring, aware, concerned, and loving young people that KNOW right from wrong and live with the ambition of being the best individuals they can be.

It gets back to priorities and values in the home. Parents that have loose moral values and want to be 'friends' with their offspring are doomed to have problem kids. It seems that their main priority is to not make any real judgments about their own standards much less hold their children to account.

[ghunter]

Today's youth have no respect, they don't care about life or death and yes it is because of the parents, single or not it is their fault the kids today is so disrespectful.  I do agree with Ivstephanie.

[linderlizzie]

Media, media, media. When profanity is everywhere in the media, e.g., television, movies, radio, online, etc., it will be adopted into society.

If there are no repercussions for using bad language, what is the incentive to stop? 

Moral relativism is also an answer to this question. If you don't think it's wrong to swear, then it's okay for you to swear. Right? 

[Falconer02]

I was riding the bus the other and a young man about the age of 10 starting using such profanity.  Every other word was the horrible

1 ten-year-old is swearing. Therefore, ALL of the youth of today is corrupted in your eyes?

[zreeds]

it saddens  me to see the condition our youth are in today. if you talk to their parents about it, some realize they have a problem and some jump down your throat (you can't win). I remember when I was seventeen I said something crazy to my mother and she slap so hard, I couldn't believe it. she told me that she was my mother and not my friend and to know my place and speak to her with respect for the reat of my life. these children today don't respect their parents or persons of authority. I know not all children have issues but those that do need to be dealt with.

[makeblessed]

So do I, that's why its important to try and mentor our youth if you have the time. Sometimes, many of them do not have a positive adult role model to guide and give them structure.

[waterbearer94]

I think there has always been kids who act bad

[kimmy29]

I was riding the bus the other and a young man about the age of 10 starting using such profanity.  Every other word was the horrible.  I remember growing up if you got caught by a neighbor or someone who knew your parents doing something wrong boy were you in trouble.  Family values really not seen as back in the day.  Wish kids would learn to enjoy their youth.  They will have plenty of time to grow up. smh

[msmoneybags48]

It comes from society as a whole.  Back in my day, if we used profanity,  we would have gotten a 50-carat beatdown.   It did not matter if we were not at home and did it.  The neighbor would have beat us, and then mom, dad, grandma and granddad.  My ex told me that his mom slapped him in the face because she asked him to throw her the dishtowel and he took her words to heart and threw the dishtowel to her. His dad had an imaginary shelf that he piled all his bad behavior on and his warning was that "when that shelf  breaks, your behind will break".  He told me when he finally got that beating, it felt like he could not sit down for a week.  I remember my cousin told the lady across the street to "kiss his behind" and he ran up in the house like the world was about to cave in.  She came behind  him, whipped him and told me what he did and what would happen to me if I did the same.  I told her she knew me better than that.  I was not quick to be disrespectful because I didn't want a beating.  Back then, it was known as making your children mind.  Now it is called child abuse.  The kids of today are running rampant and have no respect for adults.  Last Monday, we had a 14 year-old boy to shoot and kill his father while he slept.  Speculators who were not there say the man beat his wife and she killed him.  The wife was at home with the other 6 children they had and the 14 year-old was missing and found later with a self-inflicted stab wound.  You tell me what is wrong with this picture?  

[paints]

You realize that each generation asks this about their own crop of children, right?

I heard it asked when I was growing up in the 60s.

My dad, who grew up in the 40s, heard it asked about his own generation.