Joanna Lumley labels British children's morals 'slack'

[papa smurf]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

I find ignorance spans the ages, having had to brave a supermarket full of the older generation who were almost universally utterly ignorant.

It is of course entirely down to parenting. When a child struggles to find respect for the major adults in their life, their parents, what are the chances of them respecting others?

been bullied by the baby boomer's eh

Man up.....

Your supermarketz aislez allz belongz to uz...

Originally Posted by martyh

I think every older generation has had this revelation about the younger generation since we left the cave and built a mud hut .The older generation such as Lumleys were accused of exactly the same slack morals as she is accusing kids of today and the kids of today will no doubt accuse their kids of slack morals .Lumley needs to remember that her generation during the 50's and 60's were as promiscuous and disrespectfull as kids of today

Oh no we weren't.We had to behave or we got the cane..and anyone caught messing about by the neighbours got reported to their parents who promptly gave us a smacking..and anyone going home and complaining about teachers got no sympathy.

As for promiscuity the chance of pregnancy was a great deterrent as the pill/contraception wasn't available to anyone but married couples until the late 60s and abortion wasn't legalised until 1967.

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Oh no we weren't.We had to behave or we got the cane..and anyone caught messing about by the neighbours got reported to their parents who promptly gave us a smacking..and anyone going home and complaining about teachers got no sympathy.

As for promiscuity the chance of pregnancy was a great deterrent as the pill/contraception wasn't available to anyone but married couples until the late 60s and abortion wasn't legalised until 1967.

Amazing how perceptions change as we get older That may have been the case for you Maggie but where do think the phrase "baby boomers",and "promiscuous 60's" comes from .On youth crime from the 60's onwards the number of young offenders has been increasing steadily so it is no new thing .The only thing different about young people then and now is the severity of the crimes being commited .In the 60's and 70's borstals were full and teenage girls were still getting pregnant and i was a disrespectful layabout according to my gran anyway

Originally Posted by martyh

Amazing how perceptions change as we get older That may have been the case for you Maggie but where do think the phrase "baby boomers",and "promiscuous 60's" comes from .On youth crime from the 60's onwards the number of young offenders has been increasing steadily so it is no new thing .The only thing different about young people then and now is the severity of the crimes being commited .In the 60's and 70's borstals were full and teenage girls were still getting pregnant and i was a disrespectful layabout according to my gran anyway

Baby boomers are the result of men coming back after WW2.I'm one myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer

I can only tell you what the actual experiences were for REAL people.What you get in films and reminiscences from celebs of the time are nothing like it was for ordinary young men and women in the 50's and 60s.Pregnancy outside marriage was still regarded as immoral and shameful.You either had to get married or you went on a little holiday and left your bundle of joy behind.There were no council houses for unwed teenage mothers . As for abortion up until '67 you took your life in your hands if you went to a back street abortionist.
No the promiscuity came after 67 when abortion was legalised and just about then the pill began to be given out via Family Planning Clinics.

Funny as women got more choice that more and more young girls used a baby to get a council house.
No my generation weren't as promiscuous as those in the 80s onwards.

you might not have been but I know what was going on down my street when I was growing up in the 70's cuz ive been told and my olds are older than you

[Jimmy-J]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

I find ignorance spans the ages, having had to brave a supermarket full of the older generation who were almost universally utterly ignorant.

It is of course entirely down to parenting. When a child struggles to find respect for the major adults in their life, their parents, what are the chances of them respecting others?

Especially this lot... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CStfT8gCrjM

Originally Posted by Maggy J

Baby boomers are the result of men coming back after WW2.I'm one myself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_boomer

I can only tell you what the actual experiences were for REAL people.What you get in films and reminiscences from celebs of the time are nothing like it was for ordinary young men and women in the 50's and 60s.Pregnancy outside marriage was still regarded as immoral and shameful.You either had to get married or you went on a little holiday and left your bundle of joy behind.There were no council houses for unwed teenage mothers . As for abortion up until '67 you took your life in your hands if you went to a back street abortionist.
No the promiscuity came after 67 when abortion was legalised and just about then the pill began to be given out via Family Planning Clinics.

Funny as women got more choice that more and more young girls used a baby to get a council house.
No my generation weren't as promiscuous as those in the 80s onwards.

None of that proves that the morals were any different then and now though ,it just shows that it wasn't talked about .Both me and my brother were born out of wedlock in the mid sixties to 2 different fathers and my mother was the daughter of a infantry staff sergeant .
I do agree that numbers for teenage pregnancies and youth crime have gone through the roof compared to earlier generations ,my point is that the morals are roughly the same, the younger generations think the same as those previous ones ,the problem is that the standard of the morals from earlier generations is passed down to later ones .
The only way i can see to stop this is for a generation with strong morals and ethics to start the cycle again ,problem with that is society first needs to decide what morals do we want. Do we want teenage girls encouraged to have sex because they can get abortions or the pill legally with no questions asked .Do we accept youth crime as inevitable because the little dears come from a broken home ,slap an asbo on them by way of appeasing older generations and then give them a free holiday .
Harking back to past eras as the model for morality doesn't work for me .society changes and with it the accepted morals and most importantly how we deal with the people who break those moral codes that society has chosen to live by ,that is the problem as far as i am concerned .

Originally Posted by martyh

None of that proves that the morals were any different then and now though ,it just shows that it wasn't talked about .Both me and my brother were born out of wedlock in the mid sixties to 2 different fathers and my mother was the daughter of a infantry staff sergeant .
I do agree that numbers for teenage pregnancies and youth crime have gone through the roof compared to earlier generations ,my point is that the morals are roughly the same, the younger generations think the same as those previous ones ,the problem is that the standard of the morals from earlier generations is passed down to later ones .
The only way i can see to stop this is for a generation with strong morals and ethics to start the cycle again ,problem with that is society first needs to decide what morals do we want. Do we want teenage girls encouraged to have sex because they can get abortions or the pill legally with no questions asked .Do we accept youth crime as inevitable because the little dears come from a broken home ,slap an asbo on them by way of appeasing older generations and then give them a free holiday .
Harking back to past eras as the model for morality doesn't work for me .society changes and with it the accepted morals and most importantly how we deal with the people who break those moral codes that society has chosen to live by ,that is the problem as far as i am concerned .

Nonsense!If the morals were the same there would have been far more young unmarried women than there were and now it's through the roof...

I'm remembering about three years ago there was a young 15 year old in school with two girls from the same school with his babies.He was strutting about all over the place like he was something special and deserved respect.That's not something that my generation would have done

[Jimmy-J]

This is what humans do. No matter what morals we have, it'll always happen. In other words, it's human nature.

[Hom3r]

Well my Nephew (7) and Niece (10), are an example of high morals & respect.

A couple of years ago I took them to Southend for the day, we were sitting have a drink, and at another table full of OAPs on of their walking sticks fell over and as quick as a flash my niece ran over and picked it up.

They also hold open doors for OAPs and people with buggies, some of these doors are a struggle for them but they always get a thank you and a smile.

[Sparkle]

Geez, talk about stating the bleedin' obvious. Thanks Joanna !

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Well my Nephew (7) and Niece (10), are an example of high morals & respect.

A couple of years ago I took them to Southend for the day, we were sitting have a drink, and at another table full of OAPs on of their walking sticks fell over and as quick as a flash my niece ran over and picked it up.

They also hold open doors for OAPs and people with buggies, some of these doors are a struggle for them but they always get a thank you and a smile.

There are oasis of good manners and indeed the vast majority do have reasonable manners.
But there are an increasing number of children who behave in the manner that Joanna is highlighting and their numbers seem to be increasing.
I know that some of you think I'm an old fogey but the point is I do have friends young and old whom are teachers both in secondary and junior schools.I do know how the situation is and Miss Lumley has pointed out a growing situation about lack of respect in society.

[Sparkle]

Originally Posted by Hom3r

Well my Nephew (7) and Niece (10), are an example of high morals & respect.

I've known quite a few youngsters like that too, but oh how it all changed when the public school system & puberty eventually took it's toll !

[joglynne]

I have only just read this thread and would like to back Maggy's assertions in each of her posts. A lot has been made in the media through the years about the promiscuous swinging 60s but as someone who was a teenager in the early 60's I can confirm that a lot of the reports were exaggerated and aimed at grabbing headlines.

I spent a lot of time on the "Manchester Scene" I went to all the "In" places and mixed with the so called "In" people doing the same things as those who hit the headlines. I even have the odd newspaper clippings documenting my youthful escapades similar to those that are brought out to try to prove that the youngsters then were as lacking in morals as subsequent generations have been and I can happily state it's all cobblers.

The majority of my generation did still show respect to authority and the threat of pregnancy was still a very real deterrent against promiscuity. Yes, there were unmarried mothers but they didn't get pregnant by choice to get a council flat, most of the disrespect we showed was in the same vein as children testing the bounds of authority and on the whole that was how the authorities dealt with us. We were a generation of student protesters, CND supporters and in my case a Flower Child

I'm not someone who harps back to the good old days of my youth but I do wish some of the innocence and naivety of that era was still visible in the young people that have drawn Miss Lumley's to make the comments that she has done.

The world has always changed, each subsequent generation finding fault with the generations that followed. We can not go back. The Genie is out of the bottle and we have to learn to cope with people as they are now.