I never would have thought so. In actual fact, I would have guessed that it is easier being a teenager now than it has ever been.
Not so according to the annual Mission Australia report. The report which quizzed 50,000 young Australians primarily aged between 11-19 revealed that:
27 per cent of them were concerned about stress levels, while 20 per cent aged 11-14 said they were struggling to cope.
Respondents spoke of the high expectations and soaring levels of pressure experienced by young people “nowadays”, seemingly in comparison to the angst-free utopia enjoyed by previous generations.
“We’ve got more responsibilities, like part-time jobs,” one high school student offered by way of explaining the apparent cause of this skyrocketing stress.
Now, I could be wrong, but I doubt highly that our teenagers are under more pressure than generations before. I think they are more mollycodled and protected than they have ever been. Teenagers have always had jobs. The only difference is, they used to get jobs to support their family, now they are getting jobs to support their consumerism.
Perhaps they’re just better wingers than ever before?
Tags: Children, Education, Family, kids, life, News, Opinion, Parenting
Topical Teaching 
November 24, 2010 at 9:48 am |
Great post! I agree that kids in general (not just teens) are mollycodled. I Know when I was at school a portion of my part-time job went towards putting food on the table. We had the same stress of fitting in and wearing the right clothes, talking the talk and being picked for groups we wanted to be part of. I knew that not everyone I went to school with was my friend and I also knew that it was totally ok that they weren’t. Now days you have parents that go and “fix” the fact that little mike doesn’t want to sit with their son, instead of helping them see that its ok to not be best friends with everyone.
http://lovemybabies.wordpress.com/
November 24, 2010 at 1:13 pm |
Thank you for contributing. It’s means a lot. Just visited your blog. It’s fabulous. You are a very good writer.
November 24, 2010 at 3:59 pm
My pleasure, I acutally spent some time going through some of your other posts and loved them so subscribed to your blog. Keep up the great work!
Wow, thank you! That means a lot to me so far only people I know have enjoyed what I’ve been writing, its sweeter when someone that doesn’t have to like it does!
November 24, 2010 at 2:02 pm |
I agree, too. In fact, I’m thinking about all the technology and the world of information that teenagers have at their fingertips…talk about ease! I remember having to spend hours at the library, using the Dewey decimal system, flipping & scanning piles of resources, just to find a skimpy paragraph for a research paper that I had to write by hand (in perfect cursive) and without automatic spell check!
November 24, 2010 at 2:44 pm |
Lol! The Dewey Decimal system! Brings back memories.
Thanks lmparks. Keep up the good work in your classroom..
December 4, 2010 at 1:05 pm |
Wow, great posts, I’m just going through most of your posts, and I found we share almost the same ideas about children. I’m so happy. Thank you!
December 4, 2010 at 11:01 pm |
Thank you so much 2010kids. That is so kind of you to say. I’m a proud subscriber to your wonderful blog. Looking forward to reading all your posts.