Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

I'd stay where you are! It sounds like the last thing you need is to be 16000 miles away from friends and family just to avoid a few hoodies. Besides, you're yet to meet the bogan teens - who - as the others on here are telling you - can be just as bad. Don't get neurotic about the danger from the 'youths' - they're really not a significant threat statistically.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

What I have found is that Brits almost want to believe that they have it bad and that things somewhere else are just better.
When I stayed in the UK recently with friends their house was more or less opposite a secondary school, coincidently the very place I finished by schooling. I would often be heading back at end of school day and the kids would be streaming out onto the street, they looked neat and clean and would just walk down the street in little groups chatting and doing what kids do. I didn't see any hoodies or witness any bad behaviour.
To the OP I don't know who has been telling you kids are different here but I have yet to witness it.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

A couple of anecdotes that give me the idea that teenagers are better off in Australia :-

When we were here camping in 2008 on New years eve the only pitch available was next to a group of late teenagers who were getting into the spirit in the afternoon so I didnt expect much sleep that night, in the early hours they were knocking on the father in laws camper cause his snoring was keeping them up!

A couple of days later at another site we turned up & the pitch was enormous, again a big group of kids next to us with cars parked everywhere - just as I was thinking it was going to be a nightmare they came running out apologising & shifted the cars double quick.

Now we are living in Canberra & 16 year old daughter has a great bunch of mates, they all have evening/weekend jobs to earn thier own money, are respectful & can hold a conversation with adults, meet up at the mall for coffes/shakes etc but aren't hanging out at the park or street corners getting bladdered like her mates in the UK.
On one of her friends 16th birthday they had a big fancy dress party from mid afternoon til late - she got dropped home by another parent who apologised at the state of the kids, they were all hyper because of the amount of sweets they'd had!

Walking with my wife one evening encountered a few "Hoodies" lurking in an underpass, I feel my wife tensing up & confess that I was preparing myself for trouble but as we passed just got the traditional "how are ya"

I'm know that there are some anti-social kids out there, the murder Quoll mentions was by a 17 & 20 year old for a mobile phone and $27, but certainly my kids are doing better socially than they would have done back in the UK
Maybe we've just been lucky?

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Surely anyone anywhere can give good and indeed bad examples of teens ? 3 of our friends in England have teenage kids and without exception none of them are hoodies standing around on street corners getting 'bladdered'. I think it is 95% down to the parents and upbringing. Coming to Australia won't make a bad kid being bad and going the UK won't make a good kid bad.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

What about the average kids, which are the majority.

Personal anecdote... 6 years back took our kids back to the UK. We were staying at my Cousins place in an average part of Milton Keynes.... Galley Hill Stony Stratford to be exact. So we let my then 7 year old son out to play with his similar aged Cousins who he had only met a couple days before. Within 2 hours they all had been throwing stones at passing cars. This is something he has never done before or since. We were totally shocked.

So a play on Phil and Kirsty ....Environment. Environment Environment...

God knows what he would have been up to had he gone up to the supposedly bad estate next door.... Fullers Slade.

How does it work exactly though... Two Adjacent Estates.... one Suburb/Town..... Ones really rough and one not so rough... is there a entrance exam or something ?

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Yes the average kid is as good as they are anywhere.
I have never had a rock thrown at my car but I have had my car keyed, here, in Australia.
Are the kids that throw rocks and lumps of concrete at cars off overpasses here Brits ?
We can all give examples good and bad things and we all see what we want to see.
The consensus in this thread at least seems to be that kids are kids wherever they are which of course makes perfect sense.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

More teen smoke here, as they still see it as 'being cool' , an observation on mine and my teens part. (sorry for this totally useless piece of information).

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Well I still think they seem better quality here, compared to inner city children in UK. ;)

But I do agree that it is completely barking for OP to move when she clearly has no desire to other than for this "better for kids" codswallop.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

I have no real experience of inner city kids here or in the UK to be honest.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Disclaimer: none of the below is based on fact; it's all anecdotal.

I think teenagers here are 'nicer' than in the UK - I find them less intimidating and yes, I tend to find them politer and more able to hold a sensible conversation. I also do think they are 'younger' than in the UK.

However, I have been shocked at the casual drug use here, and I'm not a prude, nor am I that removed from the scene (I was 23 when I moved here, and was shocked then). I know plenty of people who use drugs in the UK, but almost everyone I know here can't get through a night out without something. The personal trainers in my gym are almost all regular drug users - can't get over that. I'm talking about people in their 20s and 30s here, not teenagers, but still relevant.

Plenty of good kids here, plenty of good kids in the UK.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

My friend was telling me about a recent party her 13 year old went to. It was a strictly timed 7-10 pm get-together, limited guest list, parents in attendance, in a very expensive Perth suburb. Halfway through the evening, the mum answers the door and there's a bunch of 13 year old girls there, clearly drunk, wanting to come into the party. I can't remember if my friend said these girls were invited or not. Anyway, the host mum told the girls that they couldn't come in because they had been drinking and that she would drive them home. The girls had walked to the party, but the host mum was concerned about them walking back home. The girls refused to tell the host mum where they lived. The host mum, presumably with help from other adults, searched the girls' bags, and found cans of Red Bull and bottles of water filled with vodka:blink::eek:.

Just one Perth anecdote, but there would be similar stories elsewhere. There are good and not-so-good teenagers everywhere, I can't see how it's better in Australia and worse in the UK.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

It is just my personal opinion but I honestly think that quite a few want to believe kids are better for no other reason than to make themselves feel better and happier. Like I said just my view.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

I would agree with that. Teenagers are teenagers the world over. They will experiment with drink, smoking as I am sure my generation and the generation before that did. The difference to me is that the teenagers I come into contact with here in my area are generally more articulate and polite than the teenagers I came into contact with in my area of the UK.


You see what I am doing there Chris955, comparing my area here to my area there. Not broadbrush generalisations about Australia and UK.

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Harsh but true.

I'd say the OP needed therapy before anything else.

Or to stop reading The Daily Mail.

Kids around here are pretty good (compared to my old urban haunt in the UK) but this is 'the sticks' and street corners don't really exist ...

Re: What do teens get up to in oz?
 

Exactly right.