Hi there, I hope I can contribute something meaningful to the forum. I'm having difficulties with young people, much of it began with the lockdowns and the pandemic. I'm not old by any stretch of the imagination; I'm 59, youthful, active, vibrant. But I'm finding that alot of my happiness and pleasure in life is being soured and spoiled by younger people. I find them to be presumptuous, condescending, selfish, entitled, and rude. Many of them cannot drive properly, they speed, are reckless and do not understand the fundamentals of safe road usage or that pedestrians have right of way. Especially during the lockdowns I found many young people to be careless and uncaring, flouting the rules and behaving as though they are invincible. I'm a happy sort, mostly positive and independent; I don't require much in the way of support, I keep pretty busy, but I'm really tired of the way these ignorant young people are screwing up my perception of the world. I'm very fit and capable but during the last 2 years my hair has turned grey; I wonder does this explain why I'm a target for the scorn and sometimes the abuse and assault perpetuated by the young? I've lived alone in this town for 14 years, maybe it's time to move on and let the young bloods run it into the ground.

I shared some nice time on social media this afternoon with people of all age groups and backgrounds, unusual for me, I don't often interact online (I was horribly trolled years back, never quite got over it)

Well, my newfound friends and I were discussing the benefits of inner-city multi-level housing when we got around to the topic of social and public housing. How hearts do glow when like meets like! The thread grew into the most supportive, inclusive, loving and like-minded thing I've seen in ages, truly, it lifted my spirits right up out of the wheelie bin and into the light of day!

Which brings me to my reason for posting this evening. I've seen the terms 'trigger high' and 'trigger low' here and there around the forum; I don't quite know what they mean or what distinguishes them, for I just 'trigger'. I guess you could say I'm a bit trigger happy. I am diagnosed Bipolar 2 with mixed moods, complicated with chronic anxiety disorder and agoraphobia, so it is sometimes difficult to separate the moods and identify the triggers. However I do know that the sun makes me smile, I love to walk, and diverse communities of progressive-minded people make me very happy. If that's a trigger high then I like it.

Goodnight joyful souls, stay safe and sweet dreams xx

Hi BoldSoul,

Wellcome to our forums!

Im sorry you have been feeling this way towards the younger generation.

Wow 14 years in your town……. Maybe you could teach the young bloods a thing or two…….

In my opinion with educating the young I try to be as positive with them as I can, maybe if we lead by example we can teach them something?

No matter how they may act I’m always as kind, caring and understanding towards them…..sometimes we don’t know their upbringing and can do with some positive reinforcement.

Maybe we can change their perspective of older people and maybe they can have intent of being more like us by our positive example 😊

Im glad that you enjoy walking and the sun, I do too …

Im sorry that you have the conditions that you have, I understand I had severe anxiety OCD and have now recovered thanks to the professional help I received….. it was quite a journey…… 🦋

Hello BoldSoul, many of these young people do and can make decisions that may have no experience in doing or know the consequences from making a mistake, slowly over time they have to begin to wake up and realise what they were told once before is what they should have done.

Many might not admit to it, while others take it on the chin and accept it, so if you're 59 then you have had more experience than these younger kids, we were all at that age once, and our parents told us that something may happen if we do it, they were normally right, so try and let them learn in life, that experience is always important.

Best wishes.

Geoff.

Hi BoldSoul

I'm sorry you have had bad experiences with some young people.

I'm older than you are and Iove being with the young people I meet in my town, I truly enjoy them!

I meet many young people here studying music because that is what I do too, and I find them inspirational! They're overwhelmingly polite and interesting to talk with.

I always chat with the young people serving in the cafes and shops too, they're almost always polite and friendly.

I think it's important to be cheerful and be interested in their lives and opinions.

We have some young people who are antisocial and rude and cause trouble. I think they often have had a troubled background. Some of them it's much safer to avoid sadly.

I did run into 3 teenagers recently though who were running off the rails a bit, but when I sat and asked them about school and what they wanted for their lives they seemed to really appreciate my interest and we had a lovely conversation.

I'm in public housing here. I know there are some rough young people in this town in Housing and I have to say I'm glad I don't have to live close to them.

My music teacher here loves teaching the young people and he gets so much enjoyment from them, it keeps him young and inspired!

I think it's important to be friendly around them and take an interest in their lives. We have a lot of life experience by this age and it's great if we can help guide some of them along.

I would be interested to hear more about the youth who are being troublesome for you.

I'd also be interested to hear what you discussed about public housing as it's important to have these talks.

Can you tell us a bit more about your experiences?

Cheers and welcome to BB!

🙂

I wanted to add that recently I was driving down a busy street here and some kids were skateboarding in the traffic and I nipped my horn to warn them as I was worried I might hit them, and they came over and spat all over my car. Luckily I had the windows up!

I think kids like this come from troubled homes and families. There are parents here who are bad role models.

I remember in another city once I met a lot of kids who came from a women's refuge. I've never come across such angry, depressed young people. I wonder what terrible things they had been exposed to in their young lives. They were primary school age!

I think we need to be worried about the poverty I see in this town. There is a huge gap between rich and poor here. Some of the schools are not the best.

I wish there was more opportunity for young people who perhaps have some behaviour issues to mix with older people who want to talk with them and listen to their concerns and use our life experiences to try to support and guide them a bit more - and offer them friendship and not judgement or condemnation.

I wonder how we could do this. I would love to do this.

Any thoughts? I'd be interested to hear from you.

🙂

The more I think about it, the more I think we older folk should be more involved in supporting and mentoring young people. Think of the benefits to both young and old if we could do this!

I'd love to have more involvement with young people! Unfortunately covid has made things really difficult.

You've got me on a roll here! How can we get more involved in helping young people so we can try to help them grow into decent adults and have a good life?

This could be a really important discussion here!

I'd be really interested in people's thoughts.

😊👍