Children's behaviour
 

I wanted to gage people's thoughts on the behaviour of kids in Australia. Let me be a little more specific. One of the many reasons why we have decided to give Aus a go is the chance for our daughter to experience more outdoor living as I did growing up in South Africa thus having more quality time outdoors with friends and less time in doors. However when we were out in Sydney I was pleasantly surprised to see kids in general very well behaved whether on public transport getting up for adults and generally having good manners. I don't need to tell you how things in the UK have got worse with kids not giving a monkey for anything authoritative and having no respect for elders.

I often get tales of woe from my elderly parent of atrocious language on the buses, not offering their seat to adults etc. My Mum asked one kid who was no older than 10 to tone down his language as she had my 9 year old daughter in tow and he told her to mind her own f*&*ing business......nice.

I know it depends on areas and parents have responsibility too, but do kids out there have some respect for police, teachers etc?

Re: Children's behaviour
 

About the same as UK in my observation. In fact I have seen more kids stand for elderly people in buses and trains in UK than I have here where there is a sense of entitlement because they have paid their fares. You probably get better responses where the kids wear school uniforms then they can be dobbed on if they do the wrong thing but in mufti they couldnt give a rats. The atrocious language is fairly endemic I suspect and the f words gets a good workout from anyone over the age of 10. Little respect for teachers and no respect for police I suspect.

Re: Children's behaviour
 

I have always found the kids to be well mannered, except for an increased use of swearwords that seems to be endemic in Australia. However they do usually tone it down if you have a young child with you and you ask them very nicely. In the UK I'd be afraid to even ask for fear of getting attacked- and that was in a supposedly nice area of the UK.

Re: Children's behaviour
 

I find kids here in Melbourne especially teenagers to be exteremely polite and well mannered. I've been offered a seat on trains many times (I'm only 41!), the kids say excuse me etc. One day I was walking down my high street and there were a group of teenagers, one of them swore quite loudly then when he saw me with my young kids he apologised.

BB

Re: Children's behaviour
 

Sounds like the kids in Australia.

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I find the parents more badly behaved than the kids to be honest. In the supermarket I can't count the amount of times I've heard parents swear at and smack their kids, some of the kids are quite little too, it's disgusting. :(

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I'd echo the same for Brisbane (western subs) . . . kids on the whole extremely well behaved to the point where it comes as a surprise if they're not . . . I'm afraid totally opposite to where I used to live in the UK.

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In my day to day life in Perth I have the same experience as Buzzy and Spartacus. Very polite and well mannered. Go to some other parts of Perth and you may not get the same.

Re: Children's behaviour
 

Location Location Location . . . as Phil and Kirsty would say.

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I agree ..and generally i think kids here are more polite ..and i'm VERY old school in how manners and morals should be!! :unsure:

Re: Children's behaviour
 

IMHO kids here are well behaved and better mannered ... but then I suppose I go on my kids friends .. and kids I meet in my line of work... They dont appear to lack confidence ... but in a nice way...

Our experience is that kids are more child like, less knowing, than their uk counterparts... their demands are simpler... I have NOT ONCE been asked for anything designer or branded ... becasue their friends have blah blah blah.. maybe that's just my kids, or the kids they hang out with...

The thing that really strikes me is how an open space, a ball and a cardboard box so easily and quickly turns into a cricket match for anyone who wants to join in... there's none of this... its mine you can't... the more the merrier... same with aussie rules...

How many premiership players in the uk take their kids to their local park to have a kickaround with them and encourage any kids hanging about to join in???? I've had that happen with my kids and major local AFL players on more than one occassion... there's a wonderful sharing here...

As for seats on trains... There are signs up on perth transport TELLING kids to give up their seats to those who need them... but I've NEVER seen a child/teen having to be asked... they are aware and they just do it... like we used to when we were kids

I love it

Re: Children's behaviour
 

I have found there's the same amount of swearing etc. but the difference is, if they see my little one, they apologise. Also arsing around, if they encroach on what you're doing they apologise. I would cringe walking past big groups of yoovs in the UK waiting for the barrage of insults that would come forth. Here nothing happens. They congregate and cause a nuisance but amongst themselves more it seems.

Best example of coming face to face with a pack of teenagers in Australia - group of lads - 15-18, hoodies, smoking walking past the playpark. Loud conversation. Thought Uh oh here we go. When I actually listened, one of them was telling the others how shocked he was at the swearing and rudeness he'd had off a mate's little 7 year old brother the day before!!! My flabber was ghast and I actually felt bad for thinking they were up to no good.........

Re: Children's behaviour
 

?? I am currently on crutches due to a broken ankle so I can't drive and have got the train about 10 times in the last month.
I have had to stand everytime, only one person has offered me a seat. There has generally been a mix of children and adults in the priority seating and when you look at them they just look away... Must be a different Perth?
:confused:

Re: Children's behaviour
 

Why not point out to them its a Priority Seat and ask them to give it up?

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Culture, culture, culture too I would say. Some cultures treat children and, more importantly, behave around children, differently to others. Some cultures its definately "Do what I say not what I do" and often use violence (in their minds its discipline) to control their childrens behaviour. Some cultures prefer to lead and speak by example and as such expect their children to follow their example.

Australia is a melting pot of different cultures and some are brash, some are reserved, some are confrontational, some are defensive. Its difficult to sometimes comprehend one which goes against your own philosophy but its that very divergence which can teach tolerance I think.

Children are what they see in my book, so I try and moderate my sons access to certain TV, access to 'adult' language and try (sometimes fail if I am honest) to create a good example of correct public behaviour for him. Bottom line is that he is an extremely polite young boy, bloody inquisitive mind you!!!

Re: Children's behaviour
 

yep agree with ole paddyo....

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That's how it is in my world as well. Although it was fairly similar in my world in the UK but the girls friends weren't so pleasantly confident in conversations with adults as they are here.

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ole?? OLE??? You young un's today!! Bah humbug!

Re: Children's behaviour
 

The guy that got bashed by a group of 15/16 yr olds on the train last week in Melbourne might have a different opinion.

And all he did was tell them not to smoke on the train...

Re: Children's behaviour
 

\\

Ummm I m prolly older than you but I like to be delusional...

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Yep. I see a similar train ride to yours. When I was on crutches for my broken foot loads of times I had to either stand or ask to have a seat. More than once I've had to ask people to get up so my very pregant workmate doesn't have to stand. She's too polite to ask, but I'm a bit of a loudmouth so don't give a rats.

Re: Children's behaviour
 

wonder where you're catching your train from.... perhaps this is a north south divide thing :rofl:

Only time I'v e seen a "problem" is when a group of young people wearing the uniform of one of the better schools in Perth got on the train.. sat on the priority seats, threw chips around, swore a lot very loudly... my work colleague phoned the school and the response she got was that the school was not responsible for the behaviour of children once they were out of school.... nice!:thumbdown:

Re: Children's behaviour
 

As a future secondary school teacher currently studying at UQ from what I've seen so far in the Queen's Land there are very well behaved and far more developed young people down here in terms of confidence and manners.

Totally unlike the ever increasing bad eggs that make up the semi human troglodites representing the youth in the UK! (I know they are not all bad!!!);)

How ever there are some bad ones down here as I've seen my self. But I think the schooling system is perhaps better here as it develops the childs self worth and confience FIRST and then concentrates in later years at school on the academic strengths.

As has been mentioned the culture down here palys an important part that of fair play and so forth. May be it is the ANZAC tradition that plays a role here because there is such huge respect for the elderly veterans and the old in general and you do see alot of school kids proudly wearing their uniforms on ANZAC day, thats where perhaps some of the kids have lost their way in the UK....

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Could be a n/s divide thing. I get on in Perth and go all the way to Clarkson so get to see a variety of train riders during my travels.

The kid in the uniform makes me chuckle at myself and again being a loudmouth. On the CAT bus one morning a bunch of boys wearing uniforms from a very expensive private school sitting in the priority seats while we middle aged women stood. A pregnant woman who was also pushing a pram got on and none of the boys bothered to get up so I asked them oh so politely if they didn't teach manners at their posh school and to get up so the lady could sit. I did phone the school and made it known how the boys behaved and the woman who answered thanked me for calling.

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I get on the train at shockingham and ride as far as perf....

what makes me laugh is the men who refer to you as "Miss" ... you just KNOW they've spent time in corrective services.... but they're pretty polite nonetheless....

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Better than being called 'Dear'. You'd have to be regularly on the Immi Forum to know that one :rolleyes:

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Year 9 Student Pulls Gun On Teacher:

http://www.news.com.au/national/teac...-1225880638148

Loads of stories of violent students in Australia with a complete disrespect for authority.

A good friends' parents were both secondary school teachers. His father, a maths & physics teacher and also the year 12 co-ordinator at a school in melbourne had to resign due to a nervous breakdown caused because the kids had no repsect for authority and were violent towards the teachers in class.

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It's equal opportunities nowadays. Many women would view standing and offering a seat for a woman as sexist. So much for female liberation!

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No one is saying it doesn't happen. It's all a personal perception of life around us. Shit happens, some of us are lucky enough not to see it as much as others.

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I don't care if it's women or men standing. The point is that on the Perth area transit system there are signs everywhere that students riding on the 50 cent fare are expected to stand for adults. Especially pregnant women and the elderly (not that I'm either you understand)

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Threads like this crack me right up. It's like when you were a kid on a Saturday evening and the man on World of Sport would be reading out the football results - you could tell what the score would be just by the tone of his voice. Same deal on here - the down-on-oz brigade seem to be getting mugged and stabbed by feral packs of delinquents, the happy-to-be-here, do not.

To the OP - you'll learn bugger all from this thread because your question, like so many on this forum, is far too general to be answered seriously. For every person who's been escorted to a reclining train seat and offered a free massage by a cheeky young lad, there's another who's had a machete shoved sideways up their jacksie by a four year old. It's all bollocks for the most part and even if everyone on this thread said it was like Beirut Borstal - you'd still be seeking a second opinion.

Kids today, eh! Pfffft.
:rolleyes:

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You're not wrong..

However..I admit that I find Australian kids certainly less aggressive. I'm not talking about teens pissed up - you take your chances in both countries, as I think Quoll seems to think.

I've found myself on public transport with a bunch of yoofs and felt that I needed to keep an eye on things only for one of them to dress down the others and pull them up.

I think younger Australian children are not quite so diffident - certainly not surly or 'won't talk'.

We had a visiting girl from the UK visit her Aunt here in Melbourne and I'd forgotten how timid in some ways English kids can be. She was about 7 or 8 but seemed more like 5 in some ways. She seemed a little out of sorts with mucking in - but of course, around here, kids grow up on acres of land and get used to all the things going on just in their backyards. I realise it is different in the burbs so it's not really a valid comparison.

I do have a memory of a time years ago, and it was largely circumstantial : when I was a teen working over summer in the US on this particular occasion I found Brit teens alot more immature than their US and Australian counterparts. To be fair, that was partly because most of the Australian teens were recruited for sporting acitivities whereas most of the Brit teens were recruited to work in the kitchens - where they worked and sang soccer songs - and very embarassing it was too. I was about the only British 'teen' who had been recruited in a sporting capacity.

I still have this lasting impression of the Australians actually making an effort to get on with American culture -and take an interest in it, even if privately they thought aspects of it a bit silly - (which we all did at times) whereas the Brits were openly rude about it. What I still vividly remember was the Australians' leadership and tact. It was one of the only times I have been embarassed by the behaviour of my fellow countrymen and women and their relative ineptness (away from the old cliched behaviour found in the Med and at Bondi)... And it wasn't as if my fellow Brits were the fine upstanding men and women of their generation who felt they well above their colonial cousins...they were well down the pecking order in this place(!) Just an episode..

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Isn't that what forums are for?? to discuss and debate and too get peoples views and thoughts and that's the beauty of forums and free speech. Its certainly not going to make or break my decision on whether or not I come to Oz, just the same as asking whether or not my clock radio picks up BBC radio 1. They are just questions:p

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Yea I know - wasn't a dig at you as such, just the cyclical nature of the discussions. And I will fully admit to being guilty of this, just as much as others on this thread.

Re: Children's behaviour
 

As someone who left the UK largely because of the young people there and their behaviour and one of my sons getting bashed by local thugs and the police not doing anything about it I can honestly say the kids in Oz are way, way better. I teach in a government high school in perth with a large concentration of British migrants and I am ashamed to say they cause quite a few problems. Aussie children are not as 'hard' as British kids (of course this is a general observation and there are exceptions on both sides) Assie kids generally seem a bit sweeter and happier. However, Aussie kids swear a lot and in that, they are equal with British kids. However I just feel there is an extreme attitude in Britain where children are not raised to respect elders. The way children behave on buses and on the street in Britain is appalling, and at times agressive and threatening.