Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Following up on letter from "The Management"...
I'm loving the discussion sparked by "the management" post.
Carla and Lisa....thank you for your confidence in me as far as being able to write something up about teens at the park. I'm thinking about what I would actually say in a print publication. I haven't got much because I go back and forth between different emotions and thoughts.
1)I'm angry at these kids. It's not that they are just making bad choices because they are kids....but they are making these choices and ignoring....no, not ignoring....they delibererately defy those of us adults who would ask them to stop. It's like they take that as a license to dare you to do anything about it.
2)And why would they think it would matter what another adult does or says....especially if it doesn't matter to their own parents.
3)point #2 makes me mad....and sad. Because the parents of some of these kids don't care.
4)Which makes me want to care. Not just for my beloved park and school property....but for the punk kids who think it's cool to trash it. Or to bully around the little kids half their size.
5)But it doesn't make me want to care as much as it makes me want to kick someone. Maybe their parents. Maybe them. I don't know.
6)And let's just say that it were one of my kids who was that age. And maybe not out for sports. So there wasn't a whole lot of structured extracurricular going on....where would I as their mom suggest they could go to hang out with their friends? Other than my own house (which would be my preference)...there is nowhere. Nowhere.
Am I mistaken? Is there a place here in town that is appropriate for the tweens/teens to hang out without getting into trouble?
7)So I'm wanting these kids to leave the park alone. Leave my kids alone. But their parents maybe don't want them hanging out at their own home. Or for whatever reasons they have...they don't want to be in their own home...Where would I suggest they go?
8)The part of me that is sad wants to provide that place for them.
The part of me that is ANGRY...wants to tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.
9)But isn't that last comment essentially what some of these kids' parents are saying to them? Which brings me back to that full circle of mad/sad thing.
Just my crazy thoughts regarding this. I'd love to hear some more discussion.
Does anybody have a rich uncle or someone who would like to invest in some sort of youth center in Durant?
Carla and Lisa....thank you for your confidence in me as far as being able to write something up about teens at the park. I'm thinking about what I would actually say in a print publication. I haven't got much because I go back and forth between different emotions and thoughts.
1)I'm angry at these kids. It's not that they are just making bad choices because they are kids....but they are making these choices and ignoring....no, not ignoring....they delibererately defy those of us adults who would ask them to stop. It's like they take that as a license to dare you to do anything about it.
2)And why would they think it would matter what another adult does or says....especially if it doesn't matter to their own parents.
3)point #2 makes me mad....and sad. Because the parents of some of these kids don't care.
4)Which makes me want to care. Not just for my beloved park and school property....but for the punk kids who think it's cool to trash it. Or to bully around the little kids half their size.
5)But it doesn't make me want to care as much as it makes me want to kick someone. Maybe their parents. Maybe them. I don't know.
6)And let's just say that it were one of my kids who was that age. And maybe not out for sports. So there wasn't a whole lot of structured extracurricular going on....where would I as their mom suggest they could go to hang out with their friends? Other than my own house (which would be my preference)...there is nowhere. Nowhere.
Am I mistaken? Is there a place here in town that is appropriate for the tweens/teens to hang out without getting into trouble?
7)So I'm wanting these kids to leave the park alone. Leave my kids alone. But their parents maybe don't want them hanging out at their own home. Or for whatever reasons they have...they don't want to be in their own home...Where would I suggest they go?
8)The part of me that is sad wants to provide that place for them.
The part of me that is ANGRY...wants to tell them to take a long walk off a short pier.
9)But isn't that last comment essentially what some of these kids' parents are saying to them? Which brings me back to that full circle of mad/sad thing.
Just my crazy thoughts regarding this. I'd love to hear some more discussion.
Does anybody have a rich uncle or someone who would like to invest in some sort of youth center in Durant?
5 Comments:
Yes, there really does need to be some kind of youth center in Durant. But the kids would probably trash that also. They would not show respect for anyone's property. I hope that my kids have a fun, safe place to go when they get older. (If not at my house, which I prefer also.) The front of the preschool??? Youth center???
What about the old Kriegers building?
Listen to us dream!
Now...where's the rich uncle?
That is a great idea. More wide open. Sorry, I do not have the rich uncle either.
I did buy a powerball ticket last night though. I better go check to see if I won!!!
I'm waiting for the Publisher's Clearing House prize patrol to show up at my door(don't laugh, someone has to win). I know there are parents that don't want their kids to have friends hang at their house. I've never understood that. I like to know what is going on. Maybe it is a little of the control freak in me. I'm with Lisa though, I'd be afraid that the kids would trash a youth center too. Kids like that just don't have any respect for things. It is sad that so many of them just get things given to them, and don't have to earn it in anyway that they don't feel the ownership of things. I don't have an answer.
Unfortunately over the years, "teen centers" of various sorts and sizes have been tried - and failed. Some worked for pre-teens but as the teens aged, it was more fun to hang out AFTER the center closed..why??...because they could do as they wished w/o supervision. Needless to say, the unsupervised activity was not acceptable.
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