View Full Version : Bored teenagers and trouble.



bucktalk
08-26-2013, 03:43 PM
In light of the horrific event in Duncan I've been thinking of the differences for teenagers today compared to years ago. When I was a teenager and/if boredom set in - I would find myself outside doing something. Prior to video games, internet and cable TV - my entertainment was riding my bike, exploring, building forts and lots of neighborhood ball games. By and large these activities kept me wore out and ready for bed by night and out of trouble. My, my times have changed for teenagers.

What did you do as a teenager to fight boredom? And how can parents guide their teenagers in today's culture?

kevinpate
08-26-2013, 05:20 PM
bikes, motorbikes, pickup games of baseball and football, not so much basketball, but a bit; swimming, fishing, hunting, plinking, hiking, creek roaming, forbidden cave, quarry and old mine entrances exploration, sipping sodas, listening to music, singing along, writing songs, poetry, short stories golfing (as often as not play holes 1-3, write in traditional scores on 4-8, lay 2 on 9, then drop the ball near the #4 tee and finish out 9, which quite conveniently was just slightly off the corner of the pool area. fortunately, the youth I knew interested in these activities included both guys and gals; frisbee, popbottle rocket wars, car hoods tied to truck bumpers in winter (never claimed we were real bright kids); climbing old fire towers and water towers and other various structures on the parental no-no lists; mowing yards, planting gardens, hauling hay, scout camps, family trips, trips with friends, at times getting into meanness, at times getting caught, grounded, switched, etc.; dances, parties, bonfires, parties after bonfires; pinball machines, foosball, pool, misssle command, galaxia, centipede, etc.

you know, kid stuff.

Teo9969
08-26-2013, 05:21 PM
Halo, Poker and Music

Mel
08-26-2013, 05:56 PM
I learned not to tell my parents I was bored, they would put me to work.

poe
08-26-2013, 06:14 PM
I usually kept myself busy with neighborhood friends. Back then, your bike meant freedom, so we would ride all day long. There was always some creek to explore, nearby swing, or some outdoor game to play until dusk. And, there was always a convenience store where we could buy candy, drinks, etc. Never once did we think about guns, drugs, murder, or theft.

Mel
08-26-2013, 06:50 PM
I usually kept myself busy with neighborhood friends. Back then, your bike meant freedom, so we would ride all day long. There was always some creek to explore, nearby swing, or some outdoor game to play until dusk. And, there was always a convenience store where we could buy candy, drinks, etc. Never once did we think about guns, drugs, murder, or theft.

The good ol' days. I miss them.

Ginkasa
08-26-2013, 06:59 PM
I guess must just be at youngin' then. When I was a teen I was murdering random people too. Like most kids my age.I

bandnerd
08-26-2013, 07:09 PM
I didn't really have the opportunity to get bored. But I was a child with a creative mind and always found a way to entertain myself. I read often, practiced piano often, and if I got really bored, I cleaned the house. When I could drive, I would go to Sonic and get a slushy and drive around, or go to the library.

I would also go for long, reflective walks on hot summer days, smelling the dirt and the grass and the heat.

I was rarely bored during the school year as a teenager, as I had plenty to do. The summers were more difficult, but I still managed to not hurt anyone.

bradh
08-26-2013, 07:28 PM
I'll +1 the comment on the bikes. Before we got our licenses, we got up in the morning, rode bikes to the field house to get our workouts out of the way for football, and then rode around town (small suburb of Houston) all day, from house to house, to the snow cone shop daily, and then back home for dinner. Those were great summers (before work and all).

Zack232
08-26-2013, 07:37 PM
In light of the horrific event in Duncan I've been thinking of the differences for teenagers today compared to years ago. When I was a teenager and/if boredom set in - I would find myself outside doing something. Prior to video games, internet and cable TV - my entertainment was riding my bike, exploring, building forts and lots of neighborhood ball games. By and large these activities kept me wore out and ready for bed by night and out of trouble. My, my times have changed for teenagers.

What did you do as a teenager to fight boredom? And how can parents guide their teenagers in today's culture?

Do you believe this is a normal thought process for teenagers today? This was an isolated incident involving sociopaths. These have been happening since human existence.

Charles Starkweather - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Starkweather)

RadicalModerate
08-26-2013, 07:50 PM
What did we, as kids of the early '60s, do to fight boredom . . .

Lots and lots of bicycle riding . . .
HIking and exploring in/on the foothills/mesas of the Front Range of the Rockies . . .

Endless hours of "playing army" (mostly Americans vs. Germans but I remember vaguely something about French vs. Colonials in the Congo or whatever) (not too much cowboys and indians, but a little bit) . . .

All of The Playground Games (some of which we even invented):
Hide and Seek . . . Kick the Can . . . Flashlight Tag . . . etc.

Sneaking through unlocked doors at the University of Colorado to explore places like the old Field House, Mackey Auditorium, Folsom Field, etc. (NOT to vandalize . . . simply to explore)

Tubing in Boulder Creek . . .

Hours and hours spent at both of the old city swimming pools (The Municipal Pool--aka The Polio Pit--later known as Spruce Pool and the newer one at Scott Carpenter Park, plus Boulder Reservoir).

Hanging out at The Public Library . . .
(and the list goes on and on).

Incidentally, on our recent road trip to SE OK my wife commented that she hadn't seen any children outside, playing, in any of the small towns we passed through on the way from OKC to Idabell on the backroads. Hopefully they weren't all inside, on a nice Saturday morning, absorbing character-killing nonsense on the Internet . . .

Dang. I just realized this is about bored TEENAGERS rather than bored kids . . .
I guess I don't remember being bored too much as a teenager.
I guess you could add crusing, parking up on Flagstaff, figuring out how to get 3.2 beer to take to the Drive-In (and how to sneak in through the fence or in the trunk of your buddy's car), rock climbing and hanging out with the freaks on The Hill and in Central Park to the list. Plus being in a band. Not a lot of time to be bored.

Achilleslastand
08-26-2013, 08:50 PM
What did we, as kids of the early '60s, do to fight boredom . . .

Lots and lots of bicycle riding . . .
HIking and exploring in/on the foothills/mesas of the Front Range of the Rockies . . .

Endless hours of "playing army" (mostly Americans vs. Germans but I remember vaguely something about French vs. Colonials in the Congo or whatever) (not too much cowboys and indians, but a little bit) . . .

All of The Playground Games (some of which we even invented):
Hide and Seek . . . Kick the Can . . . Flashlight Tag . . . etc.

Sneaking through unlocked doors at the University of Colorado to explore places like the old Field House, Mackey Auditorium, Folsom Field, etc. (NOT to vandalize . . . simply to explore)

Tubing in Boulder Creek . . .

Hours and hours spent at both of the old city swimming pools (The Municipal Pool--aka The Polio Pit--later known as Spruce Pool and the newer one at Scott Carpenter Park, plus Boulder Reservoir).

Hanging out at The Public Library . . .
(and the list goes on and on).

Incidentally, on our recent road trip to SE OK my wife commented that she hadn't seen any children outside, playing, in any of the small towns we passed through on the way from OKC to Idabell on the backroads. Hopefully they weren't all inside, on a nice Saturday morning, absorbing character-killing nonsense on the Internet . . .

Dang. I just realized this is about bored TEENAGERS rather than bored kids . . .
I guess I don't remember being bored too much as a teenager.
I guess you could add crusing, parking up on Flagstaff, figuring out how to get 3.2 beer to take to the Drive-In (and how to sneak in through the fence or in the trunk of your buddy's car), rock climbing and hanging out with the freaks on The Hill and in Central Park to the list. Plus being in a band. Not a lot of time to be bored.

Since there was no political correctness when we were kids our army games were always "US vs krauts" or USMC vs Nips.....heck we even managed to get in a few games of "cowboys vs injuns".

RadicalModerate
08-26-2013, 09:55 PM
Oh . . . There was "political correctness" alright . . . But it was a Commie thing.
Chinese Commie I seem to recall . . .
(when i was a teenager, i also spent time avoiding boredom by participating in demonstrations against the killing in vietnam. not against our soldiers on account of several of them were kids with whom i once played army. i was against the killing. for corporate profits. in a war run by politicians and idiots. sorry if that was redundant.)

bandnerd
08-27-2013, 05:18 AM
Do you believe this is a normal thought process for teenagers today? This was an isolated incident involving sociopaths. These have been happening since human existence.

Charles Starkweather - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Starkweather)

Gotta agree with Zack here. I think the "bored" comment is just a way to excuse the behavior. I don't think they were actually bored. Bored teenagers do lots of things, though some of them not always the smartest of choices, but rarely do they go out and kill someone on a whim because they were done with their homework.

kelroy55
08-27-2013, 07:14 AM
I didn't have a lot of time to be bored since I grew up in the country and we had cows, horses and some farm land. When I did have time I worked on my old pickup or went fishing, killing a few fish.

Roger S
08-27-2013, 07:20 AM
People have been killing people from the beginning of our existence on this planet. The only difference between then and now is the speed at which we find out about it.

It always cracks me up when people start talking about how we need to start spanking our children again..... You think people that were spanked have never killed anyone?

I know I took a few beatings as a kid that sure made me want to kill my parents. I never did it because I knew it was wrong. Not because they spanked me.

Some people, no matter how much they are disciplined, never have a grasp of what's right and what's wrong.... or they just don't care what is.

Bunty
08-27-2013, 10:08 AM
I played with fire. This was done by me and my friend going to the nearby junior high to pick up a bunch of discarded pop sickle sticks out of trash cans and laying on the ground. Then we'd go back to my sand pile and build houses or a whole town out of them and set one of them on fire. To make sure things didn't go out of control we had a little toy fire truck with a water pistol attached to it. The downer would be when we heard a siren of a real fire truck in the distance. Then we would quickly throw sand on the fire. We had to be very cautious about playing with fire, because my friend's father was a fireman. So no fire truck ever came. When summer came and school was out--no more pop sickle sticks--we'd pile up sand in my sand pile to represent a mountain to become a volcano by burying the end of a water hose in it. Getting me a sand pile was one of the nicest things my father did for me. He didn't like seeing me playing in the mud where he had the sand dumped.

kelroy55
08-27-2013, 11:48 AM
I forgot about frying ants with a magnifying glass.

RadicalModerate
08-27-2013, 01:10 PM
Yeah . . . I forgot about that, too.
Endless hours of entertainment, and sort of a science experiment to boot.
One kid in the neighborhood preferred to use a hammer.
(and occasionally some gasoline from their lawnmower . . .)

I think I got bored with participating in The Insect Holocaust when I was about twelve . . .

kevinpate
08-27-2013, 01:19 PM
firetrucks ..... yeah, I deserved the swtichin' that day. Wasn't fair neither. Why, we had the fire out before those guys even showed up, and that corner off the garage needed a good scrubbing and painting anyhow. Not even sure who called them guys anyhow.

Achilleslastand
08-27-2013, 01:24 PM
I forgot about frying ants with a magnifying glass.

Testors model glue and a match worked much much better.

Teo9969
08-27-2013, 01:28 PM
I forgot about frying ants with a magnifying glass.

that seems more like an elementary maybe early middle school thing. Teenagers are past magnifying glass destruction, unless they can get away with burning one of their friends, then by all means...game on.

BlackmoreRulz
08-27-2013, 06:09 PM
Testors model glue and a match worked much much better.

hairspray and a Zippo

boscorama
08-27-2013, 08:48 PM
Prank phone calls. Ringing doorbells and running away.

Can't do that #### anymore.

Actually, that wasn't boredom. It was fun.

RadicalModerate
08-27-2013, 09:04 PM
The fact that I started playing a lot of pool as a teenager seems to have put me in a pardoxical situation trouble-wise . . .
LI_Oe-jtgdI

Cocaine
08-27-2013, 09:27 PM
Maybe they were sociopaths that wanted to kill someone. They didn't have to bored they could just be really messed up in the head like that. I mean if every bored teenager just killed someone because they were bored then hey their would be millions dying every year (from bored teenagers). I'm pretty sure every one remembers the murder of Elizabeth olten a few years ago when she was murdered by her neighbor because her neighbor wanted to know what it felt like. Maybe these are just 4 teenagers are just crazy psychotic teenagers who don't belong in society.


Alyssa Bustamante | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers (http://murderpedia.org/female.B/b/bustamante-alyssa.htm)

MWCGuy
08-27-2013, 11:03 PM
Supervision and the fear of God put into me by parents kept from doing stupid things. In my early teens, I hated how strict they were. As time went on. I figured out the more responsible I was the more, they let me do. I knew better than to get in trouble with the law or cause problems at school or in the neighborhood. My groundings were more than just no privileges. It also meant extra chores. Cleaning the garage, the shed, cleaning out the flower beds, then over to grandma and grandpas to do all their yard work. I loved my free time and I had lots of it. One long grounding of work detail was all the motivation I needed to do as I was told and get my daily chores done.

I honestly think the problem is supervision. Parents would rather be friends then parents or the parents are too busy with work, school and personal lives to have time for the kid and that's how these things happen. If you have a stand up parent that holds you accountable for your actions and shows you unconditional love and respect, you are more likely to stay out of trouble. Yes, will still do stupid stuff but, you know there is a line and you will not cross it.

Mel
08-27-2013, 11:06 PM
hairspray and a Zippo

Dry cleaners bag tied in a bunch of knots and set on fire. You could napalm a red ant bed that way.

RadicalModerate
08-27-2013, 11:09 PM
Maybe they were sociopaths that wanted to kill someone. They didn't have to bored they could just be really messed up in the head like that.

"Could just be really messed up in the head . . ."???

Stew
08-28-2013, 12:11 AM
I wonder if all those teenagers who hung around Charles Manson in the late 60's were just bored. You gotta also wonder if Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate were deprived of meaningful distractions when they went on their rampage in the 50's. Nah, times were different back then.

RadicalModerate
08-28-2013, 07:42 AM
And don't forget these guys . . .
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/__-KUP2UMQt8/TJkQrXm6NNI/AAAAAAAAF8U/BLZtsk7YLzA/s320/34573221.jpg

kelroy55
08-28-2013, 10:32 AM
I wonder if all those teenagers who hung around Charles Manson in the late 60's were just bored. You gotta also wonder if Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate were deprived of meaningful distractions when they went on their rampage in the 50's. Nah, times were different back then.

Now don't be picking on Charlie Starkweather, he was just misunderstood.