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I think it's because the generation, by and large, has had the rules patiently explained to them, and have been treated with respect.
In the past, children were often beaten for not even understanding the rules, didn't participate or have any feedback in the rules, and couldn't wait to get away from the parents so they could misbehave and enjoy a little bit of freedom.
Same reasons generations past would move out at 18 and live in a dirty little run down hovel apartment rather than continue living with parents. Because frankly, it just wasn't all that enjoyable.
I think it's because the generation, by and large, has had the rules patiently explained to them, and have been treated with respect.
In the past, children were often beaten for not even understanding the rules, didn't participate or have any feedback in the rules, and couldn't wait to get away from the parents so they could misbehave and enjoy a little bit of freedom.
Same reasons generations past would move out at 18 and live in a dirty little run down hovel apartment rather than continue living with parents. Because frankly, it just wasn't all that enjoyable.
This
And the internet. Part of socialization is now online and that inhibits certain risky things while making other stuff easier to hide.
Daycare and after school care of much more common. Used to be latch key kids all over more of you did that cps would pay you a visit
In addition rules are very different today. Back in the day things like people that diddled kids were avoided not turned in, mom wore sunglasses and makeup to cover the bruises and alcohol was much easier to get.
Do that now and you'll be in prison or fined into Oblivion.
Parents are also more likely to teach with words rather than the end of a belt.
....My kids aren't bored. There's Netflix and Amazon Video and Google Play and YouTube and Pandora. They never run out of things to watch, read or listen to. They can socialize as much or as little as they want without ever leaving the house. There's food and good air conditioning. Their beds are big enough to sprawl out on and their rooms are full of cool stuff. There's no incentive to go out and do dumb things out of boredom. There's not much incentive to go out and do anything at all. My 15 year old is at the 15 1/2 mark this month and could be getting her learner's permit, but she says she's not interested in driving yet and she'll let us know when she's ready.
OMG, this sounds like something out of Brave New World! It is so incredibly and scarily passive.
My adolescence was from 1950 - 1960, we were manic by comparison.
....In the past, children were often beaten for not even understanding the rules, didn't participate or have any feedback in the rules, and couldn't wait to get away from the parents so they could misbehave and enjoy a little bit of freedom....
I grew up in the Forties, Fifties and early Sixties in a small town with a large percentage of working class people and no-nonsense immigrants. Tough parents, but "often beaten" was rarely in the picture, nor was "beaten" usual.
Rules were easy to understand: Do A, do not do B. But, right, no discussion. A great many parents in those decades had no experience with college, however they expected a high school graduate who stayed around to start being an adult - work, start hanging out with the adult men and women in town and not just your age peers, and get married. Kids who went on to college were sometimes a bit of a puzzle. They would come home for vacations and some parents treated them like high school kids again. The solution was fairly easy - for the summers at least - you got a full time job for those months, and such summer jobs were available in those years. Working an eight hour shift in a factory did help squelch the "school kid" bit...and it was a good way for a college kid to get a personal taste of a harder life than the one she or he was supposedly going to live.
Quite frankly, the lives of current teenagers as described in this thread (and in others I have looked at) sound excruciatingly boring and bland. Telling your ol' man to "go p*iss up a rope" and then slamming out of the house to walk down to the factory for an eight hour night shift juices up a life better than anything a kid will get flopped out on the bed watching Netflix.
My kids have less initiative than I had as a teen. I remember being really bored, already read every book in the house, nothing on tv except reruns, the radio played the same ten songs over and over, most of my time was taken up with schoolwork, chores or taking care of my siblings, but if I wasn't home, I couldn't be made to do those things. I used to go out and find things to do to chase away the boredom. Most of those things were forbidden. My mother was also really stingy with the air conditioning and there was never any food in the house, which also made me want to leave whenever I could.
My kids aren't bored. There's Netflix and Amazon Video and Google Play and YouTube and Pandora. They never run out of things to watch, read or listen to. They can socialize as much or as little as they want without ever leaving the house. There's food and good air conditioning. Their beds are big enough to sprawl out on and their rooms are full of cool stuff. There's no incentive to go out and do dumb things out of boredom. There's not much incentive to go out and do anything at all. My 15 year old is at the 15 1/2 mark this month and could be getting her learner's permit, but she says she's not interested in driving yet and she'll let us know when she's ready.
This is actually kind of frightening. Did you mean it sarcastically? Because really, how awful for her to want to do nothing but lay in a big comfy bed in an air conditioned room watching TV.
I would think the child is actually profoundly bored. Profoundly.
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