Representational image.

A young teen was marched into a police station by his mother when she found out that he was involved in the recent Southport riots in the UK. Right in front of the police officers, she scolded the teen so badly that the police officers decided not to charge him. They thought his mother telling him off was so strong that they felt it was punishment enough.

I wonder if I’m pleased to hear this. Yes the mother was right to tell the boy off in the strongest way possible. But I wonder if the officers were right not to charge him. The boy committed a crime and should have been punished by the law, even if it meant community service. The mother was great in this respect, telling the boy off because he clearly broke the law.

But I wonder how the mother would have reacted had he not broken the law but just a rule.

Ryan Reynolds, the actor playing Deadpool, says and rightly so, that these days parents are far too soft on their children. In today’s new-age parenting styles, this might appear to be a harsh accusation but he’s not wrong. In the old days, a father took a belt to his kids if they did something wrong and that soon stopped them from erring again. Schoolteachers carried long rulers around. Not only were these meant to be used as pointing devices for the blackboard but they were also used as a scare tool in case a child did something very bad. Is there something wrong with that? I don’t think so. In those days, children were very well behaved both in school and out of school.

Parents are indeed far too soft on their children to the point that if a child committed murder, they would probably help him get away with it. Or at the very least, not give them up to the law so easily. In fact, from what I’ve seen first-hand, parents appear to have no problem with their children behaving badly and causing mayhem and mischief as long as they’re not doing it inside their flats. Children are kicked out of the flats to roam around the building or sit in corridors like they are homeless. Or they are running around the building fighting other kids or breaking valuable assets like security cameras and doors, and leaving garbage everywhere.

The health club of the building has an even bigger problem. Things have been damaged, fights have taken place, some that are so severe that security has had to be called in to break it up. Sadly, rules are being broken by the children, some of whom are aged between 16 and 18, on an almost daily basis and yet the staff are too nervous to say or do anything about it.

In fact, many tenants who’ve lived in the complex for more than 3 decades are mortified by the horrible transformation that the building has undergone, to the point that many feel unsafe simply walking down corridors or even using certain rooms in the club. The club that used to be a safe quiet sanctuary is now a hangout for rowdy children of all ages.

On the odd occasion, staff have had children escorted out of the club, which is meant to be for adults, by the way, yet they return the next day because their parents have come down and yelled at the staff for saying something to the children. Now one might wonder where these children pick up this kind of behaviour. 

The answer is simple. These parents are running amok. The parents themselves behave badly. I’ve seen mothers fight with other tenants in the club. I’ve seen mothers pick up billiard balls and throw them around. I’ve seen mothers dump their underage children by the pool alone or babies in prams in other secluded rooms, only to be ready to fight with someone who’d say, don’t leave your baby with me! Of course the children are going to be badly behaved. The big question is, how bad can they get? Only time will tell because I’ve seen teens and 21-year olds not getting any better.