I feel for the parents who's children never return from their evening street loitering/ strolls, however this is Australia, 2025, not 1954, and they need to understand the importance of knowing where their kids are at all times.
Hello, it's important!
It's never been ok to let kids wander the streets at night anyway, or even day, what the hell did they expect?
They just don't care, they can't be bothered arguing the point with their brats so they let them go wherever they like and don't even check-in with said friends parents to see what sort of people they are. As long as their kids not in their face's and impeding on their own Netflix or whatever binge , or whatever is so important to them that they'll not give a toss where their kids claimed they were staying the evening. I experienced some of this with a couple of my sons friends from school who would stay at our house for days on end, and who's parents had never even spoken to either myself or the father of my eldest two children. We could have been organ harvesters, and planned to sell their kids bits on ebay for all they knew, or cared.
I recalled calling one particular parent up on day 2 and asking for them to bring some clothes when she exclaimed, " Doesn't your son have some he can borrow ?" Omg, like underware too?????
By this point I was pretty fed up with this parent, she was a sloth, and unfortunately so was her kid, so I told her that even my ex husbands underware wouldn't even fit her 12 year old, then told her where she could find a 24 hour Coles and that they may have some. She then told me her car was broken down, so I told her this was fine, and that we'd drive him home .
She then said, ok , thanks. * clunk phone gangs up*
But get this....
We take this poor stinky large- sized kid and his school bag home, ( this was like Sunday anyway, so it was school the next day) and so the door opens and an arm covered in dodgy looking self- inked tatoos came out at me with a plastic supermarket bag swinging from it, and presumably with a couple of pairs of undies in it. ... when I said no, that we were here to drop Master M off, as it was school tomorrow anyway. She was quite taken back , seems I had messed up her plans to rest and play video games herself all day.
I simply said, no, we don't do sleepovers during the week, and so she grunted, opened the door, he went in and someone, presumably her shut it without even introducing herself as his mother or even asking us ours, much less thanking us for having him.
Seriously the kid stank, especially his feet, don't think his feet had ever seen a pair of clean socks, that woman was an absolute shocker and was how we come to learn of the different demographic that lived on the other side of the tracks in the Hawkesburry. The boy was otherwise a great kid, very respectful and enjoyed interacting with us parents as much as he did with Jay I think.
After this, he came with clothing, and when she'd come to collect him I made a point of not inviting her into the house.
Not to be vindictive or spiteful, but I was concerned about her coveting our house and... she was rough, even if her poor kid was a really nice kid and so grateful for every single thing I gave him, food wise, unlike my ungrateful brats
.... who unlike him automatically expected pancakes on Sunday morning and a full breakfast, or at least a hot breakfast on Saturdays.This kid , only 12, couldn't remember the last time his mother made him breakfast or lunch for school, which explained my sons reaction to him taking just bread to school and eating it dry.
Oh, and re- her car, it suddenly worked when she dropped him off a couple of weeks later, much to our horror as it was unregistered according to her son.
So had she been involved in an accident and one of her children ended up in a wheelchair or worse, there wouldn't be any compensation, this would have been the end of some sense of hope in their miserable lives.
When the parents fail their children the System usually fails them also should they even bother to get involved, which unless the child is experiencing physical abuse, ie broken bones, obvious bruising on a frequent basis whereby the school or other community service has documented, the system itself doesn't have the funding necessary to help neglected kids who's parents honestly don't care where they are.
It's not an offence to lob your child with virtual strangers.
I was also an emergency foster carer for just a couple of kids who we knew from church ( not their parents,as they used the church as a type of creche only) and could tell you the horror story of all horror stories re- physical and emotional neglect but I won't, because I'd like to start my day on the right foot as we are leaving eisteddfods for home this morning, yay,
Truth us, nobody really wants to talk about the neglect of children in a wealthy country such as Australia, and the system itself isn't any different.
This is the underlying reason for our current youth crisis, it's always been there in certain communities, even affluent communities whereby emotional neglect is evident ( I have witnessed this also) but I think the fall-out from our global post-pandemic dysphoria, home insecurity and financial stress to already struggling families has made this so much worse, so we are now seeing the very children who were locked- down during critical stages of their childhood social development acting-out in ways that we'd previously come to expect from an older cohort.
" Hey mum, can I have $40 to go to the movies with a friend who's parents are taking them?"
" WTF, YOU KNOW I DON'T GET PAID TILL NEXT THURSDAY WHY THE #$@! ARE YOU ASKING FOR MONEY TO SEE A MOVIE YOU CAN WAIT A FEW WEEKS TO GET FOR FREE OFF PIRATE BAY ANYWAY?"
" But we haven't been to the movies for ages, years, and everyone else in our group's going, and I will do all my chores and even mow the lawn "
" F#@k OFF ALREADY, I ALREADY TOLDS U I AINT GOT NO MONEY UNTIL NEXT WEEK CALL YOUR FATHER UP AND ASK HIM "
" OK Mum, I will, oh and what's his number and name again?"
Truth is, early intervention is critical when it comes to prevention of youth crime, to help these kids early enough to make some small difference, it's just unfortunate that so many fell through the cracks of an already grossly failing system during covid, that we are only now seeing the extent of this neglect in the form of out of control youth now. I remember back in the early 90s when I myself was comming of age, and remember those kids who's parents always said no, or didn't care where their kids "crashed" for the night. These kids generally drifted away from the kids who's parents cared for them and who were allowed to do extracurricular activities because as nice as their own parents might be, after a while they begin to resent treating other people's kids to day trips, movies, trampoline parks etc, and end up saying " hey, why don't you invite Jack for the weekend instead, because Johnny's parents never pay his way and we just can't afford to treat others all the time."
This is happening right now for us, my daughter’s group of 5 lovely girls has one child who's father is raising both her and her sibling and he never sends her with money for outings, even though he knows what it costs to take a child to a local annual agricultural show. There's entry fees, show bags, food and rides + experiences like temporary tattoos/ facepainting / hair braiding or colour extensions ( clip on variety, not permanent ) nail art, and pony rides, aquatic bubble and other more expensive and wierd novel rides/ experiences that cost $30 a pop.
Now if you have no intentions of paying your own child's way, why would you even consider asking them to invite themselves along?
I told my daughter frankly that we'd only be taking 2 of her close friends with us this year, ( one is going to the show with their own family) and I am not taking the child who's father doesn't seem to understand that he needs to keep his own child.
She's a lovely girl, but I just can't keep footing the bill for her weekend entertainment.
I don't mind taking her to venues that are free or cheap, ie, Bird world or beach , local pool or even awesome aquatic centre in Geelong Leisure link, ( admission is dirt cheap) because we'd be going there anyway and of course kids enjoy the company of their peers outside school, but as a single parent, as frugal as I am, I just can't afford this anymore, so I have had to explain this to my own child.
She gets it, and hasn't got a problem with it, however as the years pass, it's inevitable that her poor friend will drift away and gravitate towards kids , *especially when they start hughschool) and this girl will be too busy making her own fun, sneaking out at night once her stoned fathers asleep ( this is where the moneys going) shoplifting with other kids who's parents don't provide them with propper entertainment also. This will get boring and "kiddish" after a while, and some older dregs will inspire her to do something more daring, thrilling like graffiti, petty theft, drugs, and so the nightmare begins for this child and the impacted community who falls victim to their delinquency also.
You see, kids from happy homes who feel loved, respected and well taken care of just don't wake up one morning and decide to engage in antisocial conduct.
Either they have a familial problems, a mental health/ behavioural issue, sometimes it's difficult to ascertain which even came first.
But it almost always stems from a dysfunctional or deprived upbringing
because the older they get, they see what other kids parents are buying them, and they identify themselves as being a "have not".If governments really cared about our youth crime figures soaring, it would do more than toss a few sports vouchers at them.
Because most of the kids who need these sports vouchers the most have dead beat parents who don't even drive, or are too affected by substances to be driving their kids around anyway, so usually don't even bother accessing these sports vouchers.
They're designed for the middle-class who see value in $200, getting something back for something they'd pay for themselves regardless of whether it was free or not.
Why?
Because an extracurricular activity costs much more than $200 a term.
These vouchers were designed to benefit the providers themselves, as an incentive to get parents re-engaging their kids in post-covid lockdown sports/activities to resuscitate an industry which was on a ventilator itself following lockdowns.
It also prevents business and industrial action, for the government can argue that it DID try to assist businesses to re-start and overcome their financial difficulties, same with restaurants, cafes and assorted other service providers who took a massive hit from lockdown legislation.
The uncomfortable truth politicians don't wish to talk about is that approximately 30% of Australians rent their homes, the bottom 30% of all Australians whom have struggled to find affordable housing in recent years.
But even the families doing all the right things, living within their means and spending their own money, (rather than resorted to credit) and who value their children having an extracurricular activity or two are generally struggling, by Australian standards, not 3rd world standards obviously, so those who have immigrated would be inclined to be appreciative for simply having free access to safe drinking water and have access to paid employment, regardless of how nasty it is.
Governments love a satisfied compliant society it doesn't feel it necessary to justify itself towards as the types of Immigrants we are accepting are one of two grades of meat.
PRIME BEEF - economic migrants who can afford to buy up our stock and push housing prices further through the roof, which pleases our politicians as most have investment portfolios themselves which have assets such as rental properties therefore only stand to gain financially themselves from a housing crisis ( housing shortages + rental increases+ eviction+ bond retaining). .
OFFAL- This class of immigrant will grind for peanuts and ensure the job market remains ultra competitive difficult for even unskilled Australians to break into for many are set-up as a poor migrant package deal offered by immigration lawyers ( often with their fingers in politics , if only local government also) , forcing existing Australian residents/ citizens to return to the back of the job queue, because these migration packages offered via brokers include airfares, accommodation + meals ( albo even added free /bulk billed primary and emergency health care which Australians themselves have paid for, or are still currently paying for via our taxes if still employed) and guaranteed job + temp visa to meet the full requirements for obtaining permanent residency, potentially even citizenship. So those who aren't trully refugees escaping war, or political persecution for example, say if a HAMAS rapist claimed they were at threat of political persecution and didn't mention the bit about them also being a serial rapist or even murderer, our governments protocol is to provide them sanctuary first then forget to ask questions later, particularly if they've engaged with an immigration agency who represent scum like this to evade prosecution and start over in a new country, even when this means they sold their homes to purchase " a package " .... bit like a holiday package only you never have to leave and are required to let-go of old assets and begin creating new ones grinding for someone else, aka immigration agent and forget your previous identity .
This is why so many sex offenders ended up being released into the community on the sly, because we had politicians protecting politicians because had the immigration agents not upheld their end of the migration bargain, then they could potentially involve our media and this would have exposed a very lucrative racket occurring within Australia and abroad. The whole idea is to deceive Australian tax payers, voters into thinking we are allowing refugees entry on compassionate grounds, or providing immigrants with opportunities to work in industries which have severe skill shortages or applicant shortages.
The truth is, there are no shortage of applicants, it's just those who have arrived via "package " arrangement take priority over Australians because so long as everyone's happy and getting what they want, then in theory, noone will blow the whistle or feel the need to question it's operational practices.
Remember, Immigration lawyers, and immigration agency is legal and a field of law in it's own right.
Many lawyers who migrate to Australia jump on board themselves, and then springboard into local government/ council positions.... claiming to want to assist people like themselves into Australia.
Meanwhile, Albanese has no desire to ensure these agencies are conducting themselves lawfully and with integrity, there have been many complaints within migrant circles themselves, horror stories concerning relatives who sold their organs , houses, land just to get to Australia, and were given a baloney sandwich
upon arrival once the transaction was finalised. Tell me if you believe I have this wrong, and how , if you don't believe this to be true.
Most young unskilled Australians leaving home with or without qualifications struggle these days, and they expect this because the job and housing markets are tight at present following a pandemic, but how might they feel if said refugees were gaining an unfair advantage in both the job and housing markets, an edge they can't ( not wont) compete with because all unskilled lay job's have dried up due to them being targeted by immigration agents taking them for their paying clients whom are yet to arrive on Australian shores, why advertise?
Because they need to meet a minimum standard of fairness and equality.
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