Sharon ODea is 19, but you wouldnt know it from her parents anxiety about her going out at night. My life is boring because my mum hardly ever lets me go out, she says. Even before I leave the house shes contemplating what might happen. She thinks Ill be kidnapped by criminals, that Ill get run over, that Ill hang out with the wrong crowd, that Ill start taking drugs.
| Lots of young people are getting more and more lonely because they cant go outside and play with other kids. |
Growing up may no longer be that big trek across the great outdoors. But for 15-year-old Carlene Thomas Bailey, her bedroom is just too small a place in which to find herself. I know my mum worries about me, she always wants to know where Im going, when Im coming back, who Im going with. I can take that up to a certain point. But sometimes her questions are excessive. If Im going out with my friend, Ill say, I can do this by myself. Ill get the bus home. Youll just have to trust me.
In young peoples eyes, extreme caution has overtaken the dangers of the street as the defining problem. Lots of young people are getting more and more lonely, young children especially, because they cant go outside and play with other kids, says Carlene. Stuart Fletcher, 17, who has seen his younger brothers freedom curtailed in contrast to his own, believes adults do have some sympathy with their plight but lack practical solutions. Adults dont seem able to help us, to come up with other ways of letting us do our own thing, he says.
Carlene is one of a growing body of teenagers who ask to be allowed to make their own mistakes. If I dont experience a situation for myself Im not going to understand what my mothers worrying about. You have to go through something to know that its bad, she says.
About the team
This article was produced by Abeyna Jones, 16, Chris Fletcher, 14, and Marvyn Benoit, 14. It appeared in Local Government Voice Solo.
