Generation Tame...

Amongst the flyers and Quality Newsletters piled on the back table at work lays the April 13th issue of Maclean's magazine... the Cover Story being OMG!! What happened to Teenagers???

Now, being curious about this, I definitely had to read the article that was referenced... apparently, and this may come to a shock to everyone, teenagers are actually becoming more responsible when it comes to drugs, drinking and sex.

According to Project Teen Canada, whose ongoing survey show in-depth portraits of teen life (dating back to 1984), Alcohol use among youth has fallen 7% in the last eight years. Smoking has plunged to unseen levels, while marijuana use, though still higher than 20 years ago, is still well below what is was in 2000. As for sex, 56 percent of teens say that they are still virgins (so basically, if they are having it, they're not admitting to it lol).

This is quite comforting to me... I don't know about you, but when I think about having kids... I always go straight to the trials and tribulations of having to cope with a teenager getting in trouble, doing drugs, the sex talk... all of those lovely things that will keep me up at night when I'm in my 4o's. As it turns out, even though teens today are growing up in the age of the greatest divorce rate ever, they seem to really value Family and do not want to "disappoint" their parents.

I think it might have something to do with the fact that kids today have a half child/half friend relationship with at least one of their parents. For me, I find that my mom, sister and I will go out for lunch, or to a movie, or even for drinks at least once a week. I find it refreshing that I can hang out with my mom and she's on the same level as we are. I can't imagine growing up in a time where the parents were so out of touch with reality that they had no clue what was going on with their children. My mom's on Facebook for heaven's sake!

I think that the level of respect you get from your kids has a lot to do with the level of trust you give to them. When asked to name their greatest influences, 9 out of 10 teens named either their mother or their father. (I can only imagine that the 1 out of 10 named either a sibling or misc person)

I never wanted to make my parents feel like they couldn't trust me, and therefore there were no restraints put on me. I have never had a curfew, I was allowed to have the occasional drink at parties when I was 16 or 17 and it was known that I wasn't stupid, so I wouldn't let it affect my life, my school life or my relationships. When my parents left for holidays in the winter, it was known that we would have people over to the house, and it was accepted, because my mom knew that I would keep things under control and make sure that the house was clean before they returned.

I think it's great that the "millenials" seem to have good heads on their shoulders. The more emphasis we place on the importance of family, and the less strict and untrusting parents seem to be, seems to be working. The article also mentions that in an age where the average teen does not attend church weekly, they seem to stay true to more values and are behaving significantly better than when the average teen attended church on a regular basis. I thought this was interesting considering a lot of people think that church is important because it bestows values and morals on people. I believe (and this latest survey result has confirmed) that the most important influence on a person is their environment, but mostly their parents and friends. If the parents are preaching good morals and trust their kids to find their own ways, I think that the majority of them will turn out just fine.

Well, that's my long opinion for the day... I just had to mention that it makes me feel a lot better about bringing children into the world in the next few years... not to have to worry as much about the pressures society has been putting on them to behave so badly.