Would you want to be a teen in this time? Do you feel they have pressures that we, as teens earlier, never thought of? Is it as safe now as it felt to us then?

I'm not sure that there are more pressures, but rather that the pressures are different. But even back then, as right now, a lot depended on where you lived. I think that there is a great deal of pressure on everyone these days, but there has always been that. A big difference is that the more rural places that there used to be are becoming very urban now, and urban life is more stressful than country life.

Personally, I felt much more pressure as a teen than I do now. And it has nothing to do with drugs, or fitting in, or anything like that.

As a teen, going to school, having deadlines, you just had this overwhelming feeling that if you didn't get a paper done in time, or if you did bad on a test, your life was over (at least that's how I felt). I didn't seem to have the concept of "life goes on". You have so many forces telling you what to do, your parents, your teachers, siblings, etc. etc. etc. And you just feel like the world will end if you can't get everything done that you need to.

Now, as an adult, I realize that life does in fact, go on. If there's a major project going on at work, and for whatever reason, you don't make the deadline, it's not the end of the world. You can delay, you can work overtime, whatever. In the real world, for the most part, people are much more demanding. Also, with projects as an adult, there are many more people involved. So there may be several factors involved with missing a timeframe, and people understsand.

In school, you really only had yourself to answer for. So if you missed something or did bad, it all fell on you. Between that and just the normal "growing up" you do, it's just a lot of pressure.

Yes please....can you make this happen for me Laura ?


You often hear the phrase, kids today don't know how lucky they are !

I agree with REX.

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Snowman1 Men are the same as women, just inside out !Snowman1

and these are mine, mine mine mine ...oh...and wifeys too !

Certainly, there were school pressures then that I don't have now (oh, wait, I still have those since I'm back at school!) However, I see in my small town that drugs (more variety and strength), sex, competition for scholarships, social pressures, etc are pretty intense these days. The pressures that they have were not even an issue, except for the minority. It seems as if "adult" situations come up much faster now.

I spoke to my Mother about this some time ago, and was rather surprised that pressures for sex, competition for scholarships, and social pressures were extremely intense even back then, as they were in my day. (She was a teen in the late 30's, I was a teen in the late 60's.) In regard to the scholarships, there weren't nearly as many available, but then, there are also more kids now, so it still balances out. In regard to the sex, this has always been intense, but there are some changes. First, in her time, this was something that nobody talked about. (Before her time, nobody thought that it was wrong for a man to coerce a woman to have sex.) In my time, more people talked about it, but only behind closed doors. Today, everybody talks about it, whether they are doing it or not. Drugs and alcohol have also always been out there, but you are right; there wasn't the number of different kinds that there are now, and the result is that in my mother's generation, there were more alcoholics than in generations since.

I do notice that each generation (mine included) has the tendency to think that they are going through things that no others have gone through, or that they have greater pressures of one sort or another. In actuality, though, I don't think that this is the case.