Member-only story
Where have all the kids gone?
And how to get them back
Over the last three months I’ve noticed a worrying trend. My son’s school friends have stopped engaging with him. It happened gradually.
One by one they stopped gaming online, the messages stopped and as for phone calls. Do kids even know how to have a phone conversation?
At first, I thought it was him, he had annoyed them and it was the usual falling outs that you have as a young teenager. He’s 13. We are fairly strict about what games he can play and Grand Theft Auto is a no. All his mates seem to be able to play whatever they want when they want.
Then it started to happen to my daughter too, she’s 11 and my 15 year old step-daughter. Hmmm. So, I started to ask around and even put a post on Facebook about it. I must have been concerned as I rarely use it for personal stuff.
Turns out we are not alone, it’s happening around the UK, maybe abroad too. You tell me. Are a parent in another country and reading this? Have you seen the same thing?
One friend and parent of two teenage boys said, “My boys are in less and less contact with friends but are communicating better with each other and with us. I think boys in particular need to do things together to engage with each other so social media etc only works up to a point.”
