Why are there so many disrespectful kids these days?

[xXJKING07Xx]

There's just so many of them, these are just a few examples.
I was at a customers house overseeing some new employees while they did their first cable install. It was an apartment and a young couple, they didn't look much older than their early 20's. They had two children that were completely out of control, they looked to be about 4 or 5, they were running around screaming at their parents and just being destructive. At one point, they started messing with one of my guys tools, I told them to stop and to leave my guys and their stuff alone. They started yelling and screaming at me, and continued to do so even after the parents spanked them and sent them to their corners.

Another example, with much older kids, actually happened today. I was at the store with my little brother, he's only 3, and as we got out of the car, this group of 3 kids that were about 17-19 kept cussing very loudly, which me and my family don't do around my siblings. I very kindly asked them to stop, or at least keep it down because my little brother shouldn't have to hear that. They starting being ever louder and intentionally started following us making rude gestures and one of them even threw a lit cigarette at my little brother. I walked my little brother back to the car after this, they followed me there, so I put him back in the car and gave them a "very stern talking to". I didn't hurt any of them, just scared them, they left saying they were going to call the cops and that I was being a racist ***hole.

Why are kids like this these days? The second group would be considered my generation, I'm only 19, but I've never in my life been that blatantly disrespectful to anyone.
@Ham, what entails them the right to throw a lit cigarette at a 3 year old? I consider that to be assault.

[David]

Because we have spared the rod, and the kids are not spoiled.

[Artemisc]

"The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers."

Sound familiar? That's a Socrates quote from over 2000 years ago. The belief that youth are getting worse isn't a new one.

[quietflock071]

Perhaps because you are only 19 your perceptions are somewhat biased. I have a good decade on you and I find that most kids are better adjusted to society than their older generation were at that age.

You may just be noticing their willingness to stand up for their liberties and confusing that with 'disrespect', however all evidence points to decreasing anti-social youth behaviour and crime such as assaults, vandalism, graffiti and petty theft.

[Jay]

cuz parents stopped whooping there kids asses like they did back then

[Princess94]

Well because parents are not raising their children right.

[Doink]

A lot of young people think they are oppressed, so showing respect for each other means they show disrespect for other people. I think they are so sensitive that they want to take revenge against any group that did better than them before. In other words, young disrespect old, women disrespect men, blacks disrespect whites, etc., in retaliation.

In the past, the policing was done by the groups that were then said to deserve more respect, and there was some abuse of this power. Since then, many social changes and different use of laws have made it look like people have an excuse for their behavior if they are in a victim-status group. Media and the internet increase the power of emotional appeals related to victim-status groups. The internet allows a group of people to tell each other they're good, and to say that the other group is mean. When they come in contact with you, they are ready to over-exaggerate these beliefs.

I can relate to your situation with the young couple. A lot of young parents may have had kids quickly in order to make the grandparents cough up money. They seem to treat their kids as equals. My parents didn't want me to work a job during high school, and never bought me a car. As a result, grades were the most important thing, and I'd be stranded at home unless I went to college. I think that parents now want their kids to feel happy and feel good about themselves in their social group.

In the old days, you could use any method of parenting you wanted, and it would be called parenting unless it looked like the child's life was in danger. Most people credit Dr. Benjamin Spock as the first childrens' expert who said that you can't ever make children feel bad about themselves. Since then, it seems that parents will allow their children to do most anything that feels good, instead of making them follow a set moral code at an emotional cost.

There was a flip side to the old ways, too. Back in the day, you would only see the most able-bodied, able-minded, and morally conforming people on the street. However, everyone else was in jail, in a mental hospital, or in the military. If parents knew that the family usually had children with bad behavior, they would have the children join the military as soon as they were of age, to "straighten them out." If you didn't work fast, hard, or long, you could be considered mentally ill, even if you were smart.