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September 23, 2006, 2:34 pm PDT
Worried About Kids in The Suburbs
Quote From: kr68tgr
I live in a suburb of a big city, and it is devistating what these kids are doing. Not only kids but we also have a 20 yr old who almost died from taking "too much" Nyquil. To top it off the 20 yr old hangs with 15 yr old kids and gets them doing this ****. Huffing paint, "Skittles", cough medicine, allergy pills..whatever they can get their grubby hands on. Oh to top it off, they steal it from the local grocery store.
Dr. Phil I am so glad you are doing this story because when I start to talk about this with other adults, they are clueless and shocked.
Worried About Our Kids in The Suburbs This may be coming from left field but maybe the trouble with the kids in the suburbs is the suburbs themselves. There is no town, community, or extended families to which children belong. If it takes a village to raise a child how do you raise a child without the village. Cars give young people far too much power and the ability to be alone and unsupervised by adults. Worse still is the measure of affluence that gives older children far too much free time when they should be studying, doing chores, working part time, or playing sports. Not sports of the organized and regulated but being outside doing healthy stuff. Where does a kid go to hang out when you live in the burbs and the kid is bored to death? We say we are buying homes to raise our families but are we building communities for them? Are there youth centers where kids can go to play or get help with their homework? And how will they get there? Maybe the suburbs we invented in the 50's are a poor substitute for the communities they left behind.
I raised my kids in big city by choice. I live in a community within it where my children where known by name and people knew where I lived. I knew where they liked to hang out, where they played touch football and where they were after school. I knew their parents and teachers. My apartment was a hub of activity for board games and potato chips or just hanging out watching TV. My point is that kids used to have a place to be and plenty of people around to keep them out of trouble. We called them parents.
Aurea Andino
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