I thought it was bad when my brothers used to get together with their friends and come up with stupid activities to participate in when they had a bit too much time on their hands! Stupid yes, overtly harmful? No.
Evidently the current generation of teens have gotten into the habit of spending some time trolling through the murky videos on YouTube “researching” new and inventive ways of having stupid fun which involves danger. All in the name of the thrill of getting their antics on video and placing it on YouTube! Alarmingly, teens in growing numbers choose harming oneself as the stupid activity of choice!
Are teens really that stupid? (Yeah, that’s probably an oxymoron!)
Let me assure you, I am not a dud. I like kids having big fun as much as the next mom – and my children have done some pretty extreme things. Dirt biking, ropes courses, rock climbing, cliff jumping into lakes, paint balling – but placing themselves in danger, without safety equipment is not something my teens have done. To my knowledge.
However, now that I know that the trend of placing oneself in seriously dangerous situations is a growing trend in teen culture – we’ll be discussing that subject this evening!
I feel somewhat assured of their lack of guilt in this area because we do not allow our children to spend time on YouTube. We figured out long ago that the random mindless offerings on that site do not encourage the youth of America to set high standards. But lets face it, peers have this nasty habit of being strong influences in our teens lives.
Moms we must be ever diligent to find out what’s happening in the teen culture, discuss it with our teens and help them make wise choices.
I never would have imagined we had to tell them not to catch themselves on fire or jump off of the roof…but evidently we might need to do just that!
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