Nothing to do and nowhere to go

Gary Williams

In its full ramifications, this is a more important subject than much of what gets discussed here.

The pattern that you describe - do you believe that it was ever thus?

David Bouvier

Very true - though I think the "nothing to do" problem exists in cities too - just without the logistical challenges. I suppose in the country what little there is closes earlier.

What is a 15-17 year old supposed to do after 5pm since we don't want them in the pub?

Bill

This is one of the best arguments for boarding schools that I have ever seen.

Bunnykins

Some things never change. I remember being bored witless for the want of anything to "do". Youth clubs weren't cool, particularly if they had any connection with a religious organisation. So it was left to the pubs, to a lesser extent the cinema, and the occasional free-for-all party to provide the only light on an otherwise dismal social horizon. I'm glad to see that the buses now run on time. In my 'day' one could wait an eternity for the Green Line to appear.

EC

Bored? Nothing to do? Nowhere to to go?

SUSAN, do tell them:
"www . spectator . co . uk/coffeehouse"
... and they can join the rest of us!

anne allan

When I was councillor for a country area, I got the local bus company to run buses until 10.30 pm (until then, the last bus had been 6.00 pm). All I had to do was ask and they were quite happy to provide a regular service that ran in the evening.
The interesting thing was the reaction of some parents: "I don't want my children to be able to go into town on the bus. I don't know what they're doing."

Beer Moth

Extreme boredom in adolescence is useful, as it makes the tedium and routine of adulthood seem somehow an improvement.

Youth clubs are just the ticket. There must be table-tennis, and the bats must have been stripped of their dimpled rubber, by 'the older ones'. Refreshments will be facilitated by the week's outreach worker: coffee au surface globule of Marvel, accompanied by a stale Wagon Wheel.

Alan Scott

Bill:
and for National Service or similar for both sexes.

Paul B

I agree with your conclusion Susan.

I live in small North Oxfordshire village, surrounded by farms, open fields and rural life. Its Heythrop Hunt countryside, as well the South Warwickshire. For my two teenage children, life couldn't be more different.

Scene setting, we moved to our present location approx 7 years ago. My children were born and spent their formative years on an x council estate by RAF Northolt, just alongside the A40 in a North Western suburb of London. People and cars everywhere, transport links too plenty to list - 20 mins to Marble Arch. They both loved it. I use to let them out to play in the local park and just outside the house, but I was always a bit nervous, keeping a regular check on them.However I do not believe Children should be cooped up in front of a telly,PC or games console.

The move to the countryside was a shock to them both. My eldest a young man now aged 17 has fully taken on rural life and all the delights its holds. It allowed him to run free through the fields, learning about nature, climbing trees, jumping into ponds, getting dirty and scrapping his knees. He used to go with a sandwich and a bottle of water and we didn`t see him for the rst of the day and we didn`t worry. Hes now at the very wonderful Moreton Morrell agricultural college study countryside management with a view to going into game-keeping. Hes works at a racing stables, learning a bit of Farriering and forge skills. Hes learning to drive, enjoys the odd illicit pint, plays football, is in the Army cadets and is generally really and content with life. He was never academically talented.

By contrast my daughter aged 16 and very bright, going to a top state Grammar school in Stratford is bored witless by rural life. She sits in her bedroom, brooding , speaking to contacts on Facebook and longing for the time when she can leave home go to Uni in a big city-preferably London - and live the high life as she see it. Anything organised by adults for her would be met with a withering sneer and contempt. She hates it, but she relies on Mum & Dads taxi to ferry her around. She does use busses, but the fares are extortionate for children and I recognise the inability to understand timetables.

I think it much the same as it ever was, however-100 years ago the world was so much smaller, my daughter can speak to contact Australia who fill her mind with all the wonderful attractions that country has to offer,which is great, but on the other hand it makes her resentment of the village she lives in all the greater. Its a tough life for a 16 year old, and if they do get a drunk and are bit rude to you, one should try to make allowances and try to understand the pressure they are under.

Ruby Duck

They need work. Paid work of the unskilled variety. Paper rounds, Saturday jobs and holiday jobs. There was plenty around when I was an adolescent in the 1960s.

Roy Smith

Parents should find jobs around the house for the kids to do. If they don't have home work to do, set them some to do. Don't always give in to them, be firm, set standards. TV etc should be out until all work is finished. Hobbies should be a priority in the home to keep them busy and interested. If they don't have hobbies; work at it.

Paul B

With all due respect to Ruby, the late 60s is a lifetime ago. Its a very different world today. Its very difficult for young people to do paper rounds in the morning, especially in rural areas. They cannot by law start prior to 7am. The distances paperboys/girls have to travel in rural areas to complete their rounds is far greater than urban areas, due to the distances between houses. Then they have to get back and get ready for a school bus to take them to school at about 8. Its just not possible and to be honest lots of villages no longer have a village shop and certainly not one where the owner is prepared to open say at 0630am to prepare the rounds.

Its all very well saying to the children to get jobs (and mine have) but its not quite as easy as one would assume. Rural pubs are closing,squeezed from all sides. Farms are dangerous, regulated areas. Transport to the jobs is an issue. Its not impossible for rural children to get jobs, but not as easy as one may think.

Those who blindly advocate a return to national service are living in cloud cuckoo land, asked the services recently if they want to be responsible for training the nation? It also doesn`t sit easily with my thoughts on civil liberty, why should one be forced into service (no matter how desirable) against ones will. Its also very easy to say to parents how to bring up children and what rules to law set, but far more dufficult in practise. You may turn the television off, but they have their mobiles. I would ask Roy how many children he has brought up recently, I have three under 18 all good well, balanced, law abiding children, but life is not always easy with them, and I speak as a being half of traditional two parent family. Many children now are brought by just one parent, many of whom do a very good job, but I know that at times without the support of my wife, and vice versa, it would have been so much easier to give in to the children.

Its tough life for rural children, but despite all, I belive modern rural children are a great credit to this nation, remarkable young people, who despite all, have a marvellous sense of adventure, civic duty, and responsibilty, far in excess of their tender years.

Beer Moth

Paul B

There is nothing about National Service which is inimical to civil liberties. It operates in many countries and is a valuable means of fostering cohesiveness between the generations.

This does not have to be in the form of military service. Our hospitals, councils and the service infrastructure would all benefit from the help of each new generation, many of whom are at the moment, loafing in the house, drawing benefits and getting bedded in to long term estrangement from gainful activity.

Paul B

Beer Moth ,the children are not loafing in the house, as you say, I do not accept your premise, fullstop. Rather I think its predujice on your behalf.There are youngsters who are as you describe, but they are strictly the minority. The majority of children are bright, ambitious and hard working , with a great sense of community spirit. I would point to last night Children in Need as an example, thats youth driven, annoying it maybe at times, but it has its heart in the right place.

Nothing wrong with service as you suggest, but it has to be on a voluntarily basis imo, otherwise it is an impingement on civil liberties.

Occasional Ostrich

David Bouvier
November 16th, 2009 11:23am

What is a 15-17 year old supposed to do after 5pm since we don't want them in the pub?

Why, sit at home, of course, listening to the radio. BBC, of course, but without Radio 1, and definitely none of that commercial muck, (except Radio Luxembourg, if you can get it). And, of course, the only radio in the house is in the same room as us, your parents, who will only tune in to the programmes WE want.
Television with its view of the outside world beamed into your living toom (in black and white)? Who let THAT genie out of the bottle? Why can't they just watch British Movietone News with us in the Essoldo on Saturday night? What d'you mean they've stopped showing that? D'oh! The world's going to the dogs!

Beer Moth

Paul B

Mine is not a premise, but an observation. I work in the inner-city and suburbs of one of our major cities and I have to go into occupied houses and what I observe is a very sizeable proportion of them have adolescents/young adults, usually on the sofa, often drinking beer and always watching a screen, either TV or gaming.

Now in my book that is a waste of young life and a precious part of our nation is being sold short. We have at the moment got your scheme in place: they can do something voluntarily. But what is happening? Nothing.

Norway has National Service and I don't see that their young people are being impinged on. Quite the opposite, there is an attitude of belonging engendered which we would do well to emulate in some way.

hadrian

If there was one thing as a former teacher that used to get my dander up it was having 'teenagers'bleating on about how bored they were. They got short shrift from me and a good lecturing on the need for thankfulness for their rich inheritance in this free country where life is what you make it. The pandering nowadays to this self-pitying, dependency outlook is pathetic. Even in this day of so much PC control that folks are virtually scared to do voluntary young people's work there are still innumerable organisations offering a vast array of stimulating activities for children to join. When, as the other night, I was out walking my dog, and passed the local church hall full of kids enjoying themselves and then witnessed a crowd of drunken, possibly drug crazed and very noisy yobs ( male and female) causing mayhem in the local school playground, the stark contrast between these inexcusably 'bored' thugs and their purposeful counterparts could hardly be exaggerated and again reminded one how our brave new order of child tsars etc has just produced anti-social illiterates of the first order who CHOOSE not to have purposeful lives. They deserve our sympathy only in so far as they are the product of an older generation who have instilled a mentality of self indulgence and 'the world owes us a living.' The problem is not primarily economic but far deeper- being both spiritual and moral. Our smart ass leaders refuse to believe this so they see the ever deepening crisis.

Ruby Duck

Paul B

Yes, that's pretty well the point. It's not the kids fault. They're not allowed or they're discouraged or there just aren't any unskilled jobs available.