fStopBob1977 said
So today I had to call in sick to work because I got knocked over outside work yesterday by a cocky teenage gobshite, who came speeding out of a blind alleyway on his BMX. He somehow found it funny and had the opinion that is was my fault, before riding off. I ended up with a badly gashed forearm, a whopper of a bruise on my hip and a torn groin muscle, thus rendering me barely able to walk this morning.
The whole incident has made me come to realise how ignorant, disrespectful,careless, irresponsible and downright rude someof today's teenagers can be. Seems some parents don't know how to teach their kids respect and responsibility these days. I don't ever remember growing up being so disrespectful to others, I wasn't brought up that way, so it makes me wonder why people of my generation who have kids seem to have lost the basic skills of parenting.
I was so glad to see the word 'some' in your post. Some of us old grumpies would not have been so even handed.
Sadly you are completely correct about the other side of the coin.
I used to work in a prison for over 18 years. I was regularly seeing significant numbers of young men coming who were second or third generation un-parented.
The whole attitude was that the world owed them a living and they had to give nothing back.
As a matter of ideology, I am a little reluctant to see this as an entirely modern phenomenon but empirically, it certainly does appear to be worse these days.
On a slightly different tack (because it brings in many older people) it is long overdue that cyclists were properly dealt with by the police and other relevant authorities.
It has got to the stage were some cyclists seem to believe they are immune from the law. The Road Traffic Act DOES apply to them and it is an offence to cycle on a footpath.
I hope that you are well again very soon.