Cherry – Halevaie all of klal yisroel should have the midos and mannersims of the CR membership.
Unless by “this locaton” you meant Wal-Mart, as Shtusim pointed out. In that case, I agree with you. Many of the NYC people come up the the mountains, treat the locals with disdain and act in a manner that is not the best example.
But the topic of this thread was teen behavior, so we need to stick to that. (But you are both right; we should mind our manners when upstate.
Sofdavar – I never dia headcount, but this is how the numbers usually rack up:
Reuvain sees 10 kids at the bowling alley
Shimon sees 8 kids at the mall,
Levi sees 6 people in the Walmart parking lot. = 24 kids
The problem is, these same 24 kids are seen by 20-30 adults, so all of a sudden, we have HUNDREDS of kids hanging out because it seems like they are everywhere. And yes, I know of all the bad stuff that goes on in Bklyn, but are the numbers really off the charts? NO. We are (like shtusim says) talking about a small percentage of trouble makers, and that is no reason to slam our kids for being a little looser over July and Aug.
I have several friends whose kids are “off line” in the context of the rest of their family. Know what? So was I.. as were 90% of of in our teen years. But to say that being a kid is akin to being a drug addict? Or a Greenwich Village Punk? Please. Give our kids more credit than that.
And finally, SJS and Dunno –
the reason I’m so outspoken about this topic is becuase I too was painted with a broad paintbrush, and although it was a bunch of years ago, I still remember how it hurt to be tossed in the same bucket with the sinners.
And yes, in one of last weeks threads I was accused of “generalization”. And while that tactic may be OK when discussing things that being wrong has little consequence, when it comes to our kids, we need to do more than just shoot from the hip. They are individuals, and need to be seen as such.