General Chat

Or are children becoming less respectful of adults???? I’m on the bus to work at the moment and a group of four girls aged around 12 get on and three stops later they get off. As they are exiting they start demanding a day ticket rather than the single ticket which the girl has. The driver refuses as they haven’t paid for the day ticket. Cue stream of profanity from the girls as they leave.

I think it is a sign of the times unfortunately. I bet that if they hadn't been in a group they would not have been so cheeky. Bad language seems to be the norm these days.

Kath. x

And if Mggie Thatcher hadn't taken disapline from the schoolrooms then we wouldn't have all this Sh** going on now and there would be respect for all.

I don't ever remember feeling respect for adults, especially the bullies who taught us.
What I felt was fear.

Its Been happening for a while when we lived on England swearing was the norm & in groups they show off . that's the way of the world now .Barbara

I have spent this morning in a primary school and can assure you that good manners and respect are taught and valued.
Even young ones will hold the door open for peers or adults.

This is just an 'ordinary' state school with it's fair share of troubled families, but all the children know what is expected, when it comes to behaviour.


Sometimes,once children get a bit older, I do think they will be more likely to show off in groups, but I have heard that if the bus companies have trouble locally, the schools get informed and detentions have been handed out.
Until they rerouted the buses this autumn, I often used to travel on a bus full of teenage school children, at the end of their day. I remember thinking how quiet they were, because they were all texting on their phones.

Hard to generalise really.

A member of my family had a new girl friend who had a son aged nine. She told us that she always taught him good manners. On a visit to us for a meal …. well …. if that's was good manners.... a hate to think what bad manners are like. How I kept my mouth shut I don't know

Tawny as a Brownie leader do you have problems with them ? I ran 2 units of Brownies and 1 unit of Rainbows (all at the same time) and I soon put them in place as to what was acceptable behaviour to the leaders :-D :-D

They seem quite polite on the buses here, they aren't from 'good schools' but generally say thankyou and don't give any 'lip'.

The worst behaved children I came across for gobbiness was on a train I regularly took 25 years ago so this isn't a sign of the times as such.

A couple of older boys singed my hair with matches on a school bus and that was 50 years ago! I expect they grew up to be better than that. That was a well disciplined school, with great teachers and no 'social problems' beyond the norm of the time.

The more there are together the 'bolder' they are, showing off.

My rainbows and brownies are well behaved. A little noisy but that’s just being kids. They’re not cheeky nor do they swear when we’re around.

I love them with a bit of spirit but not rude or mouthy. I think it was only about 4 or so I had that gave us a bit of grief the rest were absolute loves. I miss them a lot after retiring a few years back.

When the 3:45 bus comes, there are, inevitably, children from the local Secondary Schools waiting to catch it - the majority stand back until we 'adults' get on.
If a couple of children who don't know the 'rules' try to get on first, we adults form a pincer movement so they get on last! :-D :-D

When I used to catch the 'school' bus in the morning, I'm afraid I was the 'old bag' who asked 'certain' mouthy, disruptive children - always the same ones, they were incredibly predictable and tedious - and I told them so - if they wanted to walk to school.
If not - just shut up and sit down. They were so shocked - they did as I said :-D :-D :-D

I think there are more than there used to be but no most children aren't that bad unless they're in a group and showing off. Often though parents don't teach basic manners like sharing the pavement...so I've been known to stand my ground and force the children to walk around me :-)

Perhaps I shouldn't be, but I am always pleasantly surprised when travelling.

In my local area without exception younger people have always stood aside until I get on our local buses. My grandsons know to do the same although only the younger one uses buses regularly.

Last year my daughter, younger grandson and I had a few days in London. We used the tube for every journey around the capital and when there were no seats, a young man (in most cases much younger than me) has always given me his seat. One time a young man even gave his seat to my daughter who is 35 years younger than me. I found that a fine example of chivalry - an old-fashioned word but an apt one to describe such behaviour.

The death of self-respect.

Most of the children I know are lovely well mannered children. It’s the parents you sometimes need to watch. Whilst I was working one day two women came into the shop and part of their of conversation included the words “I don’t want my child mixing with the riffraff in Bruntsfield”. To put it in perspective the average two bedroom flat in Bruntsfield sells for £400,000 and most of the people are doctors, lawyers, bankers etc.

I have however also seen children who due to their parents don’t have a lot of chances. Parents swearing whilst telling their children not to swear, children being shown by the parents what fingers to stick up or just ignoring when their children misbehave. A lot of people want to be their child’s friend and not a parent and there in lies half the problem.

So true, Tawny!

Lizxx