Problems facing Teenagers and Parents

In the age of Internet where speed dating and live-in relationships calling the shots in metros, more conflicts between man and woman in love are bound to break hearts than what we saw earlier.

Educated youths with comfortable jobs and plenty of income on hand are quite unable to handle stress when it matters most like job loss, denial of promotion, love failure, death of a loved one, impotency etc.

Caught in a time warp, alarming number of women commit suicides due to stress. Parental care is required to support at the time of distress.

Sorry, We Don't Have Time!

Modern lifestyle has working couples to earn good income. But the question is do they have enough time to spend with their kids? Sadly, work pressure and place of work often keep children away from parents for longer hours.

Thanks to the exit of joint family system in urban India, young educated girls of marriageable ages dream of living in nuclear families post-marriage to avoid prying eyes of in-laws.

Life initially is blissful. As the couple turn old with children to dote on, they tend to lose insight. Children are left to defend themselves with no one around.

Swanky flats, sedans, latest gizmos like plasma TVs, DVDs, laptops, trendy camera mobiles and Internet connection, plenty of eatables in kitchen are the norms to keep kids in good humour.

Do the parents know what their children are watching or with whom they are talking to? Earning money and high-end career are the goals of most parents who admit on the sly that they don’t spend enough time with their children but have to do so for the sake of their children.

Children are mostly addicted to computer games that show violence and death. Logging on to the Internet in the absence of parents there are plenty of explicit sex sites popping up on screen appearing due typing errors. Children on such occasions never bring it to the notice of their parents fearing parents would block their Internet access.

Parents in most cases are on a weaker turf when speaking about the knowledge in using latest gadgets. Instead of child-lock facilities it is now the other way round to lock the gadget or files out of parents’ reach.

Children and Internet

Statistic show that many children visit social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In etc daily. These social (anti-social?!) networking sites may be renamed as social sexworking sites. Anyone can become a member and chat with the opposite sex, discuss their fantasies, indulge in virtual sex, find partners etc.

Many parents even do not know how to operate a DVD player! A former English teacher disclosed to me that it is my son studying in eigth standard who operates the DVD system and even my husband, a Chief Public Relations Officer in a public sector undertaking does not know!

Apart from DVDs, there are recorded video clippings in memory cards clandestinely sold in shops and pen drives with huge storage capacities enough to store four or five full-length movies of adult content.

With these kind of unwanted videos available as free content in the internet, the minds of schoolchildren are likely to be dangerously polluted.

Not only that, children now prefer computers for company. They are hooked to games for several hours without having food! They also tend to lose human contacts in real life. This irresposible behaviour of parents is the main cause for the strange social behaviour of their boys and girls at a later stage.

Mobile Phones Hidden Inside Panties!

In one of the leading schools in Mogappair in Chennai that churns out many state rank holders and also the one labelled as the strictest schools to enforce discipline among students was shocked to catch hold of four girls of standard six using mobile phones inside the school premises.

The girls hid the mobile phones inside their panties and kept them in vibrator mode. As soon as the phone rings, girls feeling the vibrations seek permission from their teacher to visit the restroom.

However the vigilant school management has female helpers to keep an eye on students visiting restrooms at unusual times. A girl was caught red-handed talking to someone from her mobile phone. That girl spilled the beans which lead to three of her friends landing in the net.

Immediately the parents were summoned to the school and were asked to collect TCs. This incident, luckily has not got media attention since the whole thing was brushed under the carpet.

It is also an accepted fact that present day children are very intelligent in studies and extra-cultural activities. They are capable of doing many things at a time with considerable ease.

Out of school and out of college, children armed with professional degrees and adequate knowledge skills fly high on a lucrative career.

The inevitable in the job market brings colleagues, mostly of the opposite sex, closer. Available help is on hand and sharing accommodation between opposite sexes like in western world is not a big thing now.

Live-In Relationship Is No Big News In India

Live-in relationship is mostly confined to the IT sector. As long as you pay a huge rent to the building owner and look decent, no questions are asked about who you are and with whom you sleep and what takes place within the four walls.

Live-in relationship couples come out with bold statements about casual and consensual sex! This, after the relationship sours, spells disastrous for women. It becomes more painful and the lesson is learnt the hard way that no amount of money can bring back the joy.

When a woman gets married to someone of her parents' choice and if the husband comes to know of her flings and earlier relationships, life becomes hell once again.

Social inequity has left men get off the hook and escape notice of their promiscuous lifestyle.

The bad influence a child picks up in early stages and left unnoticed may lead to several ignominies at a later stage.

So on and so forth, parents of teenagers must have their eyes and ears open concerning the welfare of their children offer proper guidance.They have to be good listeners and support their children when they are feeling dejected in life and encourage them to achieve their fullest potential. Otherwise no amount of money earned or saved could come to the children’s rescue!