Stop kicking ‘unruly’ teenagers out of the house

We are all quick to slap a tag on teenagers and children behaving totally out of place. By out of place, I mean the way society wants them to behave. I am not an advocate for misbehaving young kids and teenagers, but if you and I were to take a trip down memory lane to when we were kids, and didn’t know any better.

We’d find out that we were not the greatest growing up, some kids are less problematic to raise due to their calm nature, while some can be overwhelming and a handful. Throwing out teenagers is one of the grounding trends that, parents and guardians use as a last resort.

On the train, nothing beats travelling with your headphones plugged in. But when your battery is down, and through-out the duration of your journey, you have to listen to the automatic train announcements which is very crucial to the visually impaired passengers.

Also, as a social being you are wired to exchange some nice and some awkward glances with strangers if you aren’t reading the metro or evening standard, randomly checking the train stops illustration a few times even-though you know where you are going and endure listening to chats that have nothing to do with you.

Eavesdropping is a rude social habit, but sometimes you can’t help it due to proximity in closed public places, such as on the train or eateries. It’d be ridiculous and creepy to place your hands over your ears, so you won’t be able to hear like a kindergarten pupil.

Some chats are not incoherent, they are so audible it’s like you are involved in the conversation. I have lost count of young people that I have heard saying ” Listen, yeah! I’ve just been kicked out of the house”

You and I know atleast a friend who was thrown out of the house as a disciplinary act by a parent or guardian - A stereotypical Hollywood posh individual reading this would be thinking ”what is this man talking about”.

We all live in the same world, but there are worlds within this world. Imagine the world of Sir Winston Churchill and that of the Kray Twins. Their worlds were as far apart as the distance between Mount Arafat and the Mount Kilimanjaro. This is why I think, one shouldn’t take offence when another person doesn’t subscribe to one’s opinions and believes.

To start with, some teenagers who have been kicked out by their parents feel very embarrassed. Sleeping rough can be particularly harder on young people which can lead to a number of negative effects on their physical and mental health. Even with the downsides of sleeping rough, some teenagers find the freedom which sleeping rough brings, too strong to resist and some don’t even want to return home.

Teenagers are thrown out due to innumerable reasons, but taking this extreme route of trying to correct a behaviour, only compounds to the problem. Because in most cases, they are actually being pushed back to whatever it was the parent or guardian was trying to correct.

Teenage boys being thrown out makes them easy prey for gang indoctrination. When you are on the streets as a youngster, you’d definitely come across wolves seeking someone to devour.

Parents should realise that impacting mannerism and respect starts from infancy, and not passing any spoilt behaviour as being cute. Somehow our society produces Gangs - Yes, You and I, our society produces gangs, because gang members are not from space.

When teenage boys are on the streets, in real life and in most circumstances gangs are more likely to offer accommodation and food to unsuspecting young ones. If they have a drug addiction problem, it makes this dependence much deeper.

When teenage girls are thrown out, it’s like they are being hauled into the mouth of hungry leopards who haven’t had food to eat for a week. Not to mention the impact on a young girl’s mental and emotional health. Kicking out a teenage girl is similar to adding the final ingredient to a concoction for disaster. A lot of teenage girls wouldn’t be mothers today if they had a loving place to call home.

For unknown reasons, I think female gangs are overlooked. In fact, they are rarely ever mentioned. It could be the way our society has been conditioned through love songs and romantic comedies regarding the female nature. It could also be due to the fact that female gangs commit fewer crimes and are very small in number, but this doesn’t eradicate the threat they pose to impressionable teenage girls.

A few weeks ago, I wrote an article on the plight of sex slaves. I believe traffickers view teenage girls that endlessly perambulate the streets in any part of the globe as easy prey, being that they are at the wrong place at the right time. I’m in alignment with the parenting style of disciplining children appropriately, but not to the extent of kicking teenagers out. In my opinion, it shouldn’t even be a last resort.