Does Society Hate Children?

[Danny Ocean]

That is, everyone under 18.

Let me elaborate. In the U.K., children (especially teens) are actually feared by a large number of people. Some people just hold children is disdain ("I can't stand children."), and the vast majority condescend upon them unfairly. What makes a child more likely to lie than an adult?

On top of that, what rights does the law place upon under 18's? Until you leave your home at that age, you are basically "Parent plus one". You need to get someone more 'responsable' to approve everything that you do. You're not allowed to buy what you want, or choose what to do every day. You can't even get a job until you're 16. (unless you pull a few strings..hehe).

However, every single teen I've met seems like a rational human being. Only a tiny minority are 'problem children', and yet the whole is punished for the actions of the few. If people blanketed adults with the same treatment as they do children, there would be outrage.

It seems society view children as a second-class group, incapable of independant thought or responsibility. A group that needs to be controlled.

Thoughts?

(By the way, this isn't my teenage angst talking, it's all me.
No, I've never been on Xbox live.)

 

[Scolar Visari]

Here in America the labor laws are mostly the same as you have to be 16 to get most of the jobs out there. I don't think it's that society hates children it's just that we don't feel they are capable of looking out for themselves or understanding the consequences of their actions. For the most part I'm inclined to agree but I have met some very mature under 18's.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

Quicky: Here in the U.S you can get a job at 14 if you go downtown.(Not literally for all of you sick perverted people.)

 

[TomNook]

The current society, the Baby Boomers, grew up believing they were the pinnacle of humanity and the epicenter of the universe. They see us as a threat to them, since we are the future. They see our change, our new and unique aspects as "wrong", cause they're different. They were born into a set way o life, and cannot really grasp the concept of constant change. Thats why they invented a new silent faceless threat after Communism fell.

Finally, someone who feels the same way about baby boomers as me.

 

[SeaCalMaster]

It seems that your main complaint is against the age at which we become adults. You feel that you are as rational and mature as most adults, and as such, you should have the rights and responsibilities of an adult. The truth is, though, that children (up to a certain point) are a group that needs to be controlled. Would you give a five-year-old the same rights as a twenty-year-old? Of course you wouldn't. Yes, setting an age at which a child becomes an adult is arbitrary, but it is necessary. There needs to be some legal delineation between children and adults. If you want the age lowered, you'll have to provide a better argument than "every single teen I've met seems like a rational human being."

 

[Aries_Split]

The current society, the Baby Boomers, grew up believing they were the pinnacle of humanity and the epicenter of the universe. They see us as a threat to them, since we are the future. They see our change, our new and unique aspects as "wrong", cause they're different. They were born into a set way o life, and cannot really grasp the concept of constant change. Thats why they invented a new silent faceless threat after Communism fell.

Agreed. Also, I'm not over thirty, so I'm just a kid.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

It seems that your main complaint is against the age at which we become adults. You feel that you are as rational and mature as most adults, and as such, you should have the rights and responsibilities of an adult. The truth is, though, that children (up to a certain point) are a group that needs to be controlled. Would you give a five-year-old the same rights as a twenty-year-old? Of course you wouldn't. Yes, setting an age at which a child becomes an adult is arbitrary, but it is necessary. There needs to be some legal delineation between children and adults. If you want the age lowered, you'll have to provide a better argument than "every single teen I've met seems like a rational human being."

Take this as you wish, But adults are just like children. They fight and squander over items. You trying to keep your couch in divorce? That sounds a lot like you want your ball back.

The only thing adults have over children is experience, And as far as I can tell experience isn't hard to come by.

 

[Danny Ocean]

text

That's not what I was trying to get at.

Ack, it's hard to explain. I can't really elaborate beyond what's already been written.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

I hate the parents of children, i find kids these days have no discipline or respect for anything anymore and this is down to poor parenting and society for many small things.

Schools struggle to maintain discipline and can't enforce anything. If a child misbehaved in school many years ago a teacher could mildly beat the child perhaps on the knuckles. Then the little bastard learns not to do it again. Some may find that cruel but it worked. You can't even touch a child today.

I'm not suprised children can't be given responsiblity these days.

Kinda reminds of the recent story of that American kid who wants to quit school to play Guitar Hero. Somebody needs to punch that kid very hard in the face then throw him in a classroom.

Eh, I would be fine with being hit on the knuckles everyday of school if it meant I did not have to deal with all the dickheads and assholes, And the teacher growing a spine enough to teach rather then, Tell the test.(almost all my classes the teachers pretty much tell you whats on the test no more no less.)

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Every single teen I've met seemed like a teenager, which can be like a rational human being, but isn't one.

Adults don't suddenly age into becoming responsible. We get that way by having to go to work every day, all day, just to pay the mortgage. We get that way be raising our own children and realizing what it is to really be responsible for the life of another person. We get that way by facing the fact that we have to plan for what our lives, and by proxy our children's oppurtunities, are going to be like when we're turning 50, and gearing our financial strategies now towards that goal which is more than 15 years away.

You know responsible teenagers? I know a bunch of kids who just want to spend the next few years having fun. And more power to them, I know I was the same way at that age. But you'll see. Give it about 15 years, and if you looked back on this post you'd see what I mean.

- J

 

[Please delete this account.]

As a teenager, I feel that most adults don't take me seriously and expect me to be some kind of trouble maker. That kinda pisses me off since I'm nothing like that =/

I think that at some point along the line, some idiot with a phd wrote a book about how spoiling your kids until they become screwed up brats (Not in those words, of course) is a better method of raising a child. Parents took into that and stopped disciplining their children and became... Well... Their kids' b*tches (For lack of a better word). Kids felt powerful and stopped respecting their elders.

^I always thought that's how humanity went down the drain.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Gah, missing the point.

Okay, what makes a teen any less of a human than an adult?
Nothing really, except experience. And there is physically less human there .

So then why are we steriotyped so badly? To the extent that people are actually scared of us! I know that a lot of teens are irresponsible, but so are a lot of adults. Where do we get these irresponsible ideas from?

As a teenager, I feel that most adults don't take me seriously and expect me to be some kind of trouble maker.

For example.

 

[Bulletinmybrain]

As a teenager, I feel that most adults don't take me seriously and expect me to be some kind of trouble maker. That kinda pisses me off since I'm nothing like that =/

I think that at some point along the line, some idiot with a phd wrote a book about how spoiling your kids until they become screwed up brats (Not in those words, of course) is a better method of raising a child. Parents took into that and stopped disciplining their children and became... Well... Their kids' b*tches (For lack of a better word). Kids felt powerful and stopped respecting their elders.

^I always thought that's how humanity went down the drain. o.o

Eh, White people finally got bored of opressing everybody else so now old white people are now oppressing white people.(Most of the time white people are the ones who buy those books.)

 

[tiredinnuendo]

Gah, missing the point.

Okay, what makes a teen any less of a human than an adult?
Nothing really, except experience. And there is physically less human there .

So then why are we steriotyped so badly? To the extent that people are actually scared of us! I know that a lot of teens are irresponsible, but so are a lot of adults. Where do we get these ideas from?

Childhood is the place where nobody dies. Nobody matters, that is.

- Edna St. Vincent Millay

Teens aren't less human, they're just less responsible. In the wrong situations, that can make them dangerous or annoying. It's tough, but that's the way it goes.

- J

 

[Rath709]

If Society? were comprised entirely of me, then a resounding yes.

 

[Damin_Knight]

I would say an age to legally become an adult is needed, but not at such a high age, I would honestly say that at 15 I was perfectly capable of forming an opinion and political veiws. the age i would say is 14, and if the "problem children" decide to abuse the rights, treat them like the adults they wanted to be, give them fines, lock them up. And I agree with Indigo_Dingo, the baby boomers are scared of us because we do things differently, and this new faceless threat is global warming (for further info on that read State Of Fear by Michael Crichton)