Parents of Teenagers in Rural Areas

[Tioga]

...Living rural...take advantage of where you live...get them involved in rural activities...hiking,fishing, hunting, etc..4H is a great way for teens in rural areas to get positively involved in their community. And LIMIT THE TV TIME.

[Hinton Bound]

Originally Posted by Mercator Projection

I don't know how much permissive parenting was to blame. If I had gotten caught I would have been in big trouble. If my friend the Eagle Scout had gotten caught... man, his mom would have chewed him up and spit him out. Most of our parents were in a position to be highly embarrassed by us getting busted, so its not like they knew and just looked the other way.

I know that fear was BIIIIIG part of me not getting too carried away with anything I did as a youth! Fear of Dad finding out- I think that fear has been lost in todays soft society.

[trader1068]

Amen!! I agree with all those who say that parents need to play a big role in the children's lives, that kids can't spend their life in front of tv and video games, and that parents need to be willing to inconvenience themselves for the betterment of their kids; however, kids still need to be raised with a clear knowlede of right and wrong and a clear understanding of the consequences to wrong decisions. That IS getting lost in today's society.

[plattsburgher]

We actually picked the rural area where we wanted our kids to grow up because we researched the area first..............Some stay at home Moms, some people who worked at schools (not necessarily teachers...). Didn't have computers, but before we moved into that area we talked to a TON of neighbors (not just on that particular street, but all around..........). It is totally amazing what you can find out (and people are very willing to help you) if you take time to ask about trouble in area, state police calls, what people do for living, number of kids, ages of kids........etc. I know this sounds like a ton of work, but really wasn't...........people just love to talk and a ton of rural people have had relatives who have owned that house or farm for generations and they know things about people that were just amazing to me..........better than any computer lookup system........also just driving up and down the street at various times of the day..........On our street you could see strollers being pushed by moms and dads and kids on bikes and if we waved, they were friendly back, etc..........We moved there and it was a great childhood place for climbing trees and backyard baseball and sprinklers and forts and catching frogs, etc..............even taught the neighbor kids to fly kites and grow a garden........Other neighbors had our kids over to go backyard camping and roast marshmallow. We didn't have a stick of camping gear at that point in our lives.........nice give and take.

The whole point is........in our case we bonded with almost all of the parents on the entire street. There were also some older people who were grandparents who were retired and a few times told us when our daughter had people in cars over when we were at work............We made sure that our kids knew all the neighbors and the neighbors knew them so that it was like an extra set of eyes watching them..........Know it won't work in every situation, but they grew up knowing that those people were their Mom and Dad's friends and were also keeping a watch on them. It also worked that we took each other kids to activities so the other parents could catch a break..........people these days are too quick to close that garage door and miss an opportunity to get to know their own neighbors.......They can be your best allies at times............