Anecdotal Evidence of the good in teenagers

Bit of a strange topic, but we normally hear that modern teens are lazy, snowflakes, etc. I figured I'd share some evidence to the contrary.

Yesterday, I was enjoying some medicinal bourbon and watching Wheeler Dealers when the doorbell rang. It was a high school kid who had just flattened my mailbox with his Pilot . He came up to confess, finish delivering my mail, and apologize for the damage. He gave me his name and number, and promised he'd be back today after school to fix it.

My wife and kids were convinced that he wouldn't show, but sure enough, he shows up at 4:00 with a newly purchased PT 4x4 and shovel. It was ~10deg with a nice breeze making for a subzero wind chill. I ended up helping him a bit and providing some more tools to deal with the frozen ground, but we now have a functioning mailbox again .

I was impressed that he actually did the right thing - admitted he made a mistake, and came up with a solution. I told him most adults probably would have just kept going, and he should be proud, and told him to tell his parents that they did a good job giving him values. (He was afraid to tell his parents - I thought it would be great to tell them when he got home, after he had independently fixed the issue)

With all the crappy stuff we see in the world, sometimes it's nice to get a counterpoint to re-center things.

His motivation may have been for his parents to not find out. Since he has done right by you, it may be wise to get his permission before you "out him" to his parents.

All in all, a good story and good to hear.

Must have been fun with the frozen ground. A teenage girl hit my parent mailbox one day when the roads were a little slippery. She stopped and told my dad, who just laughed and said don't worry about it bc she is our cousin. We still pick on her about that mailbox

I Did have an adult hit my mailbox. He kept going. Neighbors saw, I called the cops. The idiot was 3 doors down. I didn't press charges and don't know if he got a ticket or anything, but this kid is on the right track.

Yeah, that kid's parents did a great job! He messed up, owned up, and fixed up!

In reply to JohnRW1621:

Oh, I certainly wouldn't out him, never know how that would go . I did say if he told them, they could call me if they felt the need. I also mentioned he should go spend a few minutes in a parking lot to avoid future incidents.

In reply to nepa0focus:

No it was not fun. I have a 5' long iron bar, and we used that plus a scrap of wood nailed to the stump of the post to lever it out of the ground. I hate when my face freezes up so I sound drunk...

No harm in telling the parents they raised a great kid. No need for details.

Hey! how dare you call me a good productive member of society!

im a lazy snowflake and proud!

How to dig a hole in frozen ground.

Build a fire on the spot. warm your hands till it burns out.

Quickly dig the hole

In reply to iceracer:

Good idea! In this case we were able to just reuse the hole from the old 4x4 with some persuasion from the iron bar and a sledge.

In reply to TurboFocus:

Yeah, yeah, kids these days....

I work with teens every day. Give me a break. There are more good ones than bad by a long shot. And it's been this way forever. We just remember the bad stuff because most of the good stuff happens so often it's common place. This however is an example of multiple good things coming together for a memorable event. I really am tired of the teen/young hate I see from adults. We were all teens once.

vwcorvette wrote: I work with teens every day. Give me a break. There are more good ones than bad by a long shot. And it's been this way forever. We just remember the bad stuff because most of the good stuff happens so often it's common place. This however is an example of multiple good things coming together for a memorable event. I really am tired of the teen/young hate I see from adults. We were all teens once.

I've said it before myself, even "the greatest generations" parents thought the were lazy no good turds from time to time as well.

Your officially old when you start bitching and moaning about "kids these days"