colchar

Sadly, drunk driving and suicide happen everywhere. Those issues are hardly unique to Red Deer, Alberta, or Canada as a whole.

colchar

According to this there are more deaths from drunk driving in the UK than in Canada:

http://resources.prev.org/documents/FittoDrive.pdf


According to data from the WHO the suicide rate is higher in the UK than in Canada:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_suicide_rate

Here is some info on crime in Canada and the UK:

http://www.nationmaster.com/country-...-Kingdom/Crime




Define 'worse driver' and show some proof.

colchar

Who said that? And teens drink everywhere in the western world. Are you trying to claim that there is no teen drinking in the UK?


As they are in the UK.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/W...and_Trends.pdf





According to the info below Canada's dropout rate is only 1.2% higher than the dropout rate in the UK:

Learning to Know: High-school dropout rate | Composite Learning Index | CLI




Should we be as stupidly paranoid as people in Britain seem to be?

Facebook gossip causes storm in Troon and Prestwick over an alleged "paedophile" - who was an Indian tourist sending seaside snaps home to his family - Daily Record



Teen pregnancies; huge! sitting outside the high school to collect daughter watching how many girls walked out pregnant. One of her friends younger sisters had a baby at 15. Her 3 best friends all have babies now and quite a few more are pregnant or have kids. One of them has 2 kids!

I guess there is nothing else to do.
I am just thankful I am not a grandmoher right now.[/quote]


You might want to look at the relevant statistics for Canada and the UK (see page #4):

http://www.beststart.org/events/deta.../PC1_mckay.pdf




And self harm doesn't happen in the UK?



Drunk driving happens everywhere.


Nobody is saying that Canada is perfect or is not without problems, but there is a ridiculous amount of misinformation being spouted in this thread that can be clarified with a simple two second search.

Piff Poff

In regards to the self harm issue - my friend, whose son was in the same high school that my daughter went to, told me this before my daughter went. I didn't believe her, she also told me about alcohol consumption. I didn't believe her. My daughter self harmed, during counselling it became apparent this was a very big problem.

If you look at the links I posted you will see that it is people beyond school age drink driving, and that the penalties are laughable. As for the suicides 6 in one year across the school authorities is a shameful stat. And I am well aware teen pregnancies happen the world over, I was just commenting that it seemed to be a badge of honour to have avoided it. BTW if a teen is pregnant the school will assist in the teen getting advice on termination without telling the parents.

Piff Poff

I was just highlighting that some people may move to Canada as they think their child won't become a teen parent because everything is so much better here - it still happens.

bats

More deaths? Of course there are as there are more people in the UK. You need to find recent data showing death rate, or deaths due to drunk driving rate.


The link you gave shows that

"Since 1999, the percent of fatally injured drivers with positive BACs has fluctuated between 35% and 38% 10. ". That's for Canada. It later goes on to say that the same percentage for GB is 20%. That's less isn't it.

Find something recent comparing like for like. Plus look at it on a provincial level as week as on a UK country and region level.

colchar

I am not saying it isn't a problem. What I am saying is that they are not encouraged to do so, as you claimed, and that it is a problem everywhere.



And I have said that drunk driving is a problem everywhere.


Sadly, suicides happen everywhere.


For some in the UK it seems to be a badge of honour to have accomplished it!




And what happens in the UK?

Roberto1980

Exactly. Plus good direction, good teachings and a bit of luck!!

Note to self, and a slap on the wrist for starting this type of topic lol

Piff Poff

Self harming is not encouraged by the teachers, it's taught to the younger kids by the older kids as a stress relief and unfortunately as it's not spoken about it's a cycle that keeps happening and until you have a kid in that school no one talks about as it's swept under the carpet.

Yes drunk driving happens everywhere I do not dispute that, but the penalties here are terrible, a couple of years for taking lives or not even that in some cases, just months and then parole, it's like the UK in the 60's.

And yes suicides happen everywhere, I also do not dispute that, but 6 in one year in a city of less than 100k in the same age group is not something you hear about often.

Now the OP wanted to know if moving for the kids was all it was cracked up to be, I've said no and highlighted my reasons why, it's the same old shit in a slightly shinier bucket, with the same problems that are better hidden as there are not the tabloids to harp on about the problems, they like to keep their shit covered with a nice smelling blanket. Now you can carry on thinking your bucket is shinier than everyone elses and possibly it is, or possibly you have been lucky, or possibly you are an Ostrich.

Shard

I keep hearing the term 'self harm' in media everywhere, and tbh, am not entirely sure what it entails. Is it one thing (like cuts) or is it a range of behaviours. Sorry to raise the point directly, but in the context of teenagers I am not quite sure what is meant?

It's very troubling when any child/teen anywhere feels they need to act in this way.

JuneSpring

Someone obviously feels the need to be the defender of Canada. Oh please. Don't invalidate her experiences, and judging by the dominance of the themes mentioned here, this is not an isolated event and the standards here may be lacking.

JuneSpring

Yep...

ExKiwilass

the thing is colchar in Piff's part of Canada this IS an issue. Stop trying to minimise her experiences by comparing the whole of Canada to the whole of the UK.

No one is saying the UK is better. All people are saying is Canada ain't no utopia for parents of teenagers, which is TRUE.

I haven't heard of the self-harming thing or drunk driving here but i'm in a big city, relatively speaking, and most kids around here take transit and smoke pot. Also, culturally it's not acceptable here and many immigrants don't have the same binge drinking culture so that changes things. I suspect it's very different where Piff is. That doesn't mean one of us is lying, just that there are different issues depending on where you are. It doesn't surprise me at all that she's having these issues where she is.

colchar

Well that is completely different. Your original comment was "self harming is suggested amongst teens in high school as a stress relief" which made it sound as if it was coming from some official source (ie. teachers). But of course kids are going to tell each other stupid crap, that is what kids do and have been doing forever.

You told the OP that they shouldn't move for the kids, that it wasn't worth it, and then listed reasons why. None of those reasons are unique to Red Deer, Alberta, or Canada as a whole as they happen everywhere. Do you not think that kids tell each other stupid crap in the UK too?

And shouldn't the kids have enough brains to ignore stupid crap? When I was a teenager if someone had suggested to me that I cut myself to relieve stress I would have told them to bugger off. If a kid is foolish enough to follow stupid advice like that there is a bigger issue with that kid as ny kid with common sense will ignore it.




Have you paid any attention to how ridiculous the UK justice system has become lately and how many people get heavy sentences for small, stupid crimes while those who commit worse crimes get light sentences? I've never heard of a Canadian judge praising a burglar for being brave, but that happened in the UK:

Probe into judge who praised burglar's 'courage' - BBC News




No, you do not hear of that often and it was obviously a bad year - but it is also a statistical anomaly.




And those reasons were wrong. First of all, the issues are nowhere near as widespread as you make them out to be. Second, those issues aren't unique to Canada as they also exist in the UK and other western countries. You are arguing that the OP should not move here because of those issues but one could just as easily argue that they should not stay in the UK because of those issues!




While we do not have the gutter press that exists in Britain, we do have tabloids as well.





Or it is possible that you are paranoid and are sensationalizing things.

I never once claimed that Canada was perfect, that it was without its problems, or that those issues didn't exist here. But you made it sound as if those issues are widespread, that it would be detrimental to bring/raise kids here, and advised the Op not to come. You were wrong - own it.

JamesM

The binge drinking in the UK thing wears thin.

Binge drinking in decline among young adults - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

The Youth of Britain are cleaning up their act and their North American cousins could learn a lot from their self awareness and maturity levels.