ANSWERS: 19
  • You got that right. I don't remember having near the amount of issues to deal with that today's kids do, thank God.
  • Materialistically, it IS quite different. Emotionally, intellectually, etc., it's just being human, so YES... We went through pretty much the same thing. We have (most of us, anyway), had unrequited loves, breakups, feelings of loneliness, thoughts of destruction, gotten into trouble for doing things (albeit, MOST of us didn't do as much "illegal activity" as some teens do today), worried our parents, desired sex, were confused by our hormonal changes, had loved ones and maybe friends die (albeit less violently than some, today), hated school, been bullied (or WERE bullies), had religious questions, etc. Some dealt with divorce, abuse (violence and sexual), step-parents, teen pregnancy (or knew girls...), drugs, parents hating out music, etc. We also confused and confounded our parents by listening to them, understanding what was being said, but not REALLY hearing what they were saying until we were older. Trust me... Except for the materialistic stuff - iPods, cell-phones, DVDs, computers, CDs, 200 channels, etc., and violence in today's world - We've been there and done that. ;-)
  • Same problems in growing up, just a different time zone.
  • Many things are different, but basic growing-up issues are pretty constant. For instance: peer acceptance has always been important - and difficult for many (not all) teens. It's hard to see oneself as others see one, and kids have always felt they had to "be" what their peers expected them to be, even when they don't even know for sure what the expectations ARE. Creating a separate identity from one's parents has always been important, and with it, its elements of conflict. Risk-taking (related to the above) is necessary in order for a kid to learn what limits are real and to learn what risks are stupid and which are smart. Kids have always searched for "a high" - and alcohol was there even when pot and coke were not. (And illegal drugs have been with us for longer than most people realize.) Dealing with one's sexuality has always been a sequence of anxieties for teens. Having less self-confidence than we need has always been an issue. There's always been fear, especially fear of rejection, and in general, most kids think others are more confident and less fearful than themselves. When I was a kid, I had no idea that other kids were just about as anxious and stressed out as I was, and that THEIR fear was the source of some of the meanness they put out. Yes, today's texting, I-phones, multi-user online games, FaceBook, etc. etc. etc. are very different pastimes from those of previous generations, but really, these are somewhat superficial differences when compared to the issues listed above.
  • Yes, it's different, just some basic issues. But at least I suppose that teenagers taking drugs were more common in the 1970's than today.
  • First of all, it just continues to amaze me how younger people feel it it necessary to re-invent the wheel every time the same situations come up as if they have never been dealt with before. Except for technology, the human race, and all the problems we deal with, hasn't measurably changed: Unwanted pregnancies? Gee, I wonder what causes that and if the responsibilities have changed. Drug addictions? Gee, I wonder if taking mind altering substances can be bad for you and if anyone else has ever had to deal with them. Flat broke and can't pay your bills? Gee, I wonder if anyone else has had this problem and might be able to teach me something. Mom/Dad/Brother/Sister/Child terminally ill and you don't know where to turn? I wonder if anyone else has had this problem? Abusive relationship that you don't know how to get out of? Couldn't possibly have happened to anyone else. If I seem a little curt here, I appologize. I'm NOT angry at you. And for the most part, I'm NOT angry at those who find themselves in such dire straights. However, it IS frustrating to see so many people in bad situations because THEY INTENTIONALLY PUT THEMSELVES THERE BY DELIBERATELY IGNORING THE FACTS OF LIFE AROUND THEM! The purpose of older generations is to raise the younger generations. They do this a variety of ways: from experience, example, demonstrations, stories, books, etc. The purpose of younger generations is to learn to become a responsible adult and take over that role. Obviously not everybody is good at teaching and not everybody is good at learning. Therein lies the problem. But the solution for so many people for so many problems is so simple; yet because of their individual WANTS and LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY, they often utterly fail to impliment it: LEARN BY OTHER PEOPLES EXAMPLES AND MISTAKES! The result of NOT learning this way may be very painful indeed. But hey, "Pain is Mother Nature's way of teaching those who do not learn from other's mistakes." That's my own quote, and you all may freely use it.
  • YES, We've been through it all. That's why you teenagers should go to your parents for advice
  • I know kids today look at people like me, I was born in 1957 and think you have no idea what its like to be me today! But really think about it, I grew up with two parents who raised me to know right from wrong, learn to work for extra money if I wanted things they couldn't afford. Helped raise my little sister, went though high school and there were drugs, pot, LSD and more, beer party on the weekends,same worries of bullies, kids that felt they would only hang out with the rich kids, what were we going to do after high school etc. sure violence wasn't as bad as far as gangs and guns and the toys of the rich were different but all and all the principals in life are the same, if you know whats right, work hard, love your parents and listen to what most adults have to say and learn from them your life will be much easier. after all I'm an old dog and I can learn new tricks, as I went back to school at the age of 46, many of my classmates are much older, so young kids can learn new ones too....
  • Things have certainly changed, but nothing is different if you know what I mean.:)
  • I think our parents grew up different and had harder times than we had. But most of them do know what they're talking about.
  • Details are different but similiar life situations have been around since the beginning of human history. In other words the more things change the more they stay the same.
  • They went through the exact same inner turmoil as I did, I just didn't understand it at the time. Drugs were a rarity, and gangs were more about impressing friends than doing actual damage. Still, we have it much better than they did, I think. There has been a lot of progress made in psychology, especially in teens, which was unavailable to help parents understand and cope not-so-good behavior back then. There were no meds to help, and it was the leather belt, the back of the hand, or the military back then. Teen pregnancy was shameful. Today it is admirable that a young girl finish school while her belly swells. I admire it, too :)
  • I think kids are just as mean to other kids as they've always been. That was my biggest problem in school..I think drugs and peer pressure to take the drugs are a bigger problem. My kids had problems with mean kids, especially the girls, That can really do a job on a young girl if she's not In the crowd!! I think, with parents working, and kids alone so much, it's very different now. It's sad that some kids are being dragged up instead of brought up.
  • Human nature remains the same. Sin remains the same. What we didn't have when I was a kid was the constant media onslaught normalizing crime, sin and just plain bad behavior. TV was censored when I was a small child. Even after the censorship was lifted, there were places you just didn't go (George Carlin's seven words you don't say on TV). You would never have seen the OJ chase on TV when I was a kid. You would never have seen Janet Jackson's nipple on TV when I was a kid. You never saw violence on TV before 9:00 when I was a kid, unless it was very stylized, stagey original Star Trek type fighting. You didn't get the constant beating about the ears with what Britney Spears was doing, what Paris Hilton was doing, what Madonna was doing, what Brangelina was up to. Stars were expected to show a certain level of decorum, and if they didn't, the media didn't trumpet it from the housetops. You didn't see Britney Spears crotch bleeped out on TV. You didn't see nudity on TV at all. All these crime shows like CSI and Law and Order would have had a hard time getting on the air. About as violent as you got was Columbo. The trouble is, kids do what they see. If they don't, we might as well shut down all the schools, because that is the premise they are based on. The normalization of violence and sexual deviation (sex with kids, sex with multiple partners, etc) has led to everything from an explosion of STDs in high school to the fad here of having rubber balls dangling under your Ram Pickup. Forty years ago, a kid with rubber balls under his truck would have been arrested for public indecency. Besides, I always wonder if they have to put balls on their truck because they don't have any in their pants. The behavior that is being shown as normal to kids today still isn't normal, and it isn't healthy. You don't raise healthy kids in an environment that is so steeped in deviant behavior. Kids shouldn't be able to type an innocent word into a computer and be enticed into viewing pornography. The only way I can see to raise a healthy kid is to keep the TV off most of the time and not let her on the computer alone. Lets be honest here, kids did have sex in High School when I was a kid, but they either got married (in high school) or they had a really bad reputation. I didn't have sex in high school. I saw what happened to the friends in high school who had babies, and I didn't want to suffer the consequences they did. One developed juvenile diabetes because her body wasn't up to the demands of pregnancy at thirteen. One gave her baby up and grieved for it for as long as I knew her. One kept it, and all her dreams went down the tubes. Two more got married and started families young. They did okay, but it was a struggle for them. There really were swingers in the seventies, but I didn't know any of them. Most people didn't feel the need to share what they were doing in their bedrooms with their kids. I did know a few gay couples, and I did know they were gay, but we didn't talk a lot about what that meant because it wasn't necessary. Herpes got started in my early teens. Aids got started when I was in my late teens. I'm very glad I didn't go there.
  • Just what I expcet a young wipper snapper to say you lousy hippies!!!!
  • I would say our parrents had somewhat similar teenaged years to us... but our adulthoods are WAY worse. their generation is having working retirements... my generation will have NO retirement because parasitic executives are stripmining the economy and leaving NOTHING for the consumers
  • Yes I did go through the same things my daughter is going through... my mom the same too. She didn't have all the chaos that I had and I didn't have all the added BS that my daughter has but overall - yeah we can compare notes and agree that being teenagers is the same.
  • Things were certainly different for my mom and I...I grew up in the 80's and she grew up in the 50's. But there is an awful lot less difference in when I grew up and my almost 15 year old daughter now. (Besides the parachute pants, of course!) Even the music is very much the same and I see the same kind of stuff in the schools now as when I was in high school.
  • In a way yes, though our generation is much more perverse thrill seeking time. They knew of puberty and of all basic stuff, though they were not hit with all the sex, drugs, and alcohol as we are now. Either way, give them the benefit of the doubt just so that you will earn the same should you live to their age.

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