The Youth Of Today...

I should start this post by pointing out that I don't believe that everybody under the age of twenty is a thug, yob or (God forbid) hoodie. I know that most of the young people I meet aren't actively trying to destroy everything that they can get their hands on or steal everything that isn't nailed down.
It's for this reason that when I respond to a report of "Nuisance Youths" I'm open-minded and speak to them, trying to point out that although they don't mean to be, they are being a bit noisey and so would they mind keeping it down? Most of the time, if you approach them on this level, with a bit of respect, they react well and do as they're asked.
Whenever I attend this sort of job, and it goes this way, I quite enjoy it. We had one such job where a school caretaker had phoned us to say that there were half a dozen kids on the school grounds (this was in the evening. Not during school time. Though sometimes having half a dozen kids in class is a bit of a novelty too!) The caretaker said that these youths had thrown something in the school pond and that they were generally making a mess.
I attended, spoke to them and they were good-natured and attentive. I organised them into a line and we did a litter pick around the school grounds and retrieved a tractor tyre from the pond. I got on quite well with them and they actually worked really well as a team. I'd like to think that having them spend half an hour picking up empty crisp packets was more effective than shouting at them. Time will tell I suppose, but none of them have caused any problems there since.
However, there's another sort of youth who is much more difficult to deal with. This is the youth who has been told by their parents all about their "rights" and that the Police, their teachers and other adults in the community have no right to tell them to stop breaking the law.
This is the youth who, when told to move away from an area where they've been causing problems replies, "You can't make me. My mum'll sue you and then you'll get sacked".
The fourteen year old girl who's been drinking cheap cider and who doesn't want to listen to the fact that this makes her much more likely to be raped. And when you take the little angel home Mum, assuming she's in the house and sober, actually gets really angry with me. Because now she's going to have to exercise some parental responsability and look after her child.
There's loads of reasons for the amount of anti-social behaviour today. But can I suggest it doesn't help that some parents can't be bothered to accept the responsability for being a parent and that over the last decade or so it's become effectively impossible for schools and the Police to properly deal with bad behaviour. Can we really blame some of the kids for running wild when there's not really any reason for them not to?
And finally, a note to those people who've forgotten what it's like to be a child - playing football on a football pitch next to a leisure centre does not constitute anti-social behaviour. That's actually children spending time doing something healthy rather than sitting infront of a computer.
That said, given that I'm writing a blog, perhaps I should be running around chasing a football? Don't want to upset anybody though...