Monday, April 16, 2007

Waiting On The World To Change

On Friday, I took the girls to the high school to have a lunch date with Brad. When I arrived, classes had just been let out and the parking lot was JAMMED with kids. No big deal, I thought, they'll obviously move when they see me coming.


WRONG.

Not only did they not move, but one kid told me to "go around me, b*$#!" and a group of girls looked at me like they wanted to meet me at the bike racks. By the time I was finally able to park my car, I was shaking I was so mad.


Here's the thing: the state of the world, and of the people in the world, SUCKS. The lack of respect and the general attitude of this up-and-coming generation is terrifying and while I haven't felt all that much older than these kids in the past, I do now. NEVER, ever, would I or any of my friends have treated an adult like that when we were in high school. I was shocked and completely disappointed in today's youth.


My feelings were only confirmed again on Saturday when I took Hannah to the Miss Tri-Cities Outstanding Teen pageant to support one of my young women. Two of the girls chose dresses that were HORRIBLE and they both choose to do "hip-hop" dancing for their talent. One vibrated around the stage to "Push It" by Salt-N-Peppa and the other gyrated to "Rock This Body" by some young man who has absolutely no grasp of the English language. So, so glad Hannah was there to see all that.


My friend Erica made a suggestion at Christmas and I'm beginnging to think it's a really good idea. We were having a similar conversation and she proposed that at birth, everyone is injected with an ID marker that lives under the skin and prevents you from reproducing. When you are of sound age and mind, and have completed some rigorous education in childrearing, then the device is removed and you are able to procreate.


I'm ready to lobby congress. Who's in?

7 comments:

Melissa said...

Sounds like a plan to me! I too have dealt with the disrespectful youth. It makes me worry about my own little ones. I teach them what I can, but I know full well that their friends will be a great influence on them. All I can do is hope and pray for good friends!

tharker said...

Wow! I'm still shocked that he called you that name! I'm with you, I never in my wildest dreams would have spoken to an adult like that. I think I like Erica's idea too.

Brooklet said...

My career before Claire came along was working with Youth at Risk and I was always shocked by how kids spoke in front of adults and how they acted. And at the time these kids were only a couple years younger than me. I always figured they were either drunk, high, coming down, or going threw withdrawals. I was surrounded so much by these teenagers that I started to forget that in fact there are teenager who are respectful, who are ambitious and hardworking, and who really will make something of their life.

Alicia Leppert said...

Oh my gosh, it was so crazy reading this because I cannot tell you what an issue this is for me. It infuriates me to no end how disrespectful kids are these days, how they treat adults the same as someone their age.
I sat and fumed through senior primary on Sunday as I listened to kid after kid randomly open their mouths and say whatever thought happened to be in their brain, whether or not someone (teacher) was already talking. Shouting out answers, talking to each other...
Every time I got up to sing I stood there and sang a solo and watched each kid stare at their lap, pick at their fingernails, turn their paper from class into a paper airplane or sit there and stare deliberately at me with their mouths closed tight. At one point I stood up to work on our song for the month, a HYMN about the Savior, and the whole primary groaned and not one, but two kids said, "This is boring!" super loud. I wanted to scream. I gave a weak little lecture on how the song is not about having fun but feeling the spirit and thinking about Christ, and they stared at me like, "why would you even think I would care about what you're saying." This wasn't a rare Sunday. It's almost always like this. Sorry this is so long, but this really gets me fired up. I just wanna smack some respect into them all.

Heather said...

I'm with you Karen. I was no angel growing up- but I never would have acted the way I see kids acting now.

Ok... I take it back- I was an angel!

Nuka said...

I do agree that kids are different now than they were even five or six years ago when I was in high school but they didn't start out that way. I think it reflects more on the society at large... and everyone has a part in that.

But sometimes I do just want to slap some of them upside the head - I'm not going to lie. I try and foster lots of relationships with youth... I feel like that makes a huge difference because what it's really about is them feeling like no one gives a shit about them or the world as they themselves experience it.

Carina said...

Ok, I'M shaking I'm so angry. I would have gotten out of that car and boxed his ears. Seriously. The NERVE.

That being said, I don't think that kids today are any worse than when I was a kid. My husband certainly saw/heard worse things when he was in school.