Dave Mollard's Change is Constant: Teens walk a tightrope between child and adulthood

Nowadays, teens' misdeeds are caught on camera and posted on social media for all of us to comment on. Photo / Unsplash

OPINION:

I was driving home the other day and I saw a kid, probably about 15, judging by the wisps of hair on his chin. He was riding a scooter (not the electric kind, the 50cc petrol Honda kind) on the footpath and not wearing a helmet.

"Idiot," I muttered as I cruised past with the air-conditioning on. As I stopped at the lights I realised I had just called my teenage self an idiot, as I did exactly the same thing at a similar age. At 14, I "borrowed" my sister's Nifty Fifty to go and rent a video in town. I, too, was not wearing a helmet and was on the footpath but, unfortunately for me, the police saw me and pulled me over. In a display of great policing, they took the keys off me, made me push the scooter home and delivered the keys to my very surprised mother later that night.

Palmy has experienced a lot of teenage trouble over the past few months - cars stolen and damaged, electric scooters thrown through shop windows, and fights in Te Marae o Hine. But when you really think about it, apart from the electric scooters, our city and I'm sure the rest of Aotearoa have always had issues with teenagers. The only difference is that now their misdeeds are caught on camera and posted on social media for all of us to comment on.

I have two teenage children, both walking that tightrope with childhood on one end and adulthood on the other. Actually, it's more like a bungee jump, diving into the abyss of adulthood but bouncing back to childhood every so often.

As I compare my teenage years to theirs I see we were the bigger risk-takers, we smoked more, we drank more, we went to more rock concerts and we drove around the square with four of us squeezed into the backseat of the Mark 3 Cortina. We went surfing for the weekend with nothing more than a box of Weet-Bix and a pack of sausages to fuel us, we slept on the beach and drank $5 bottles of Chardon Pink.

My point, if I have one, is teenagers by definition are not very smart, they think they are but their brains have not fully developed the areas that assess risk. So instead of writing off today's youth as a waste of time, maybe remind yourself that you were one once. Cut them some slack and show them a massive amount of aroha. Also, hide the keys to the motor vehicles and liquor cabinet when you go out!

The only constant is change.

• Dave Mollard is a Palmerston North community worker and social commentator.