One thing I have really started to dislike on Facebook lately are re-posts, they are like a modern day chain letter……….re-post this if you don’t what to die of a hideous illness, re-post if your love our boys in Afghanistan, re-post this if you don’t want your kids interfered with by a Catholic Priest…re-post this if you thing we should bring back hanging etc etc etc. I try to ignore them, but I also have a perverted streak in me that wants to read how paranoid, vitriolic and bitter people can become if they read the Daily Mail too often. Look at the example below .

Can you imagine the self indulgent bitter and twisted fool who wrote that rant, one that carries no substance whatsoever. I have spent the last six summers working with youths/young men, however, this April will have a huge hole in it without my cricket team who have all grown up and either gone on to play the adult game or moved on to other things.

I am going to miss it badly, it played a huge part in my early summer calendar, it was a self rewarding job that I relished. Everyone of those youths had characteristics I loved, some were cocky, some were shy, some were instantly likable others were harder work, but out of the 15 to 20 of them I coached, all of them treated me how I wanted to be treated and none of them slammed doors in my face.

As with everything there were squabbles here and there, but when you are taking on the role of temporary guardian, it is critical to understand the varying domestic and schooling situations of teenagers that can reflect in their behaviour, the ignorant prat who wrote that rant has obviously never worked with children.

The best example I can give you of this particular bunch of lads is this;  A couple of years ago they turned up to a match and half heartedly got battered by the opposition, I was really embarrassed and upset to the point where I felt like packing it all in. The following week, after an honest group discussion with the chap who was effectively my right hand man (Mark) something in them as a unit changed, something in them didn’t want to see me like that again, they felt bad about letting me and the other parents down with their attitude.

Their response the following week was to dish out a good hiding to a team rated much higher than them, it was an incredible turn around and a collective spirit that I will never forget. When I did my little team talk afterwards, I was so proud I nearly burst in to tears and as a team they went on to achieve great things, often against the odds.

When I see them out and about, many of parents relate back to the day they (the boys)  didn’t want to let themselves down any more as the catalyst to them achieving things that they previously thought impossible. Either I am ludicrously lucky, or there are groups of youths like that all over the country. These are the same youths that this buffoon apparently detests, he is probably the type who would like to birch them to within an inch of their lives for writing left handed.

So, here is my message to you, the spiteful and resentful fool who wrote that drivel. I suggest that you are the one who is rude, you are the one who never gives chance and you are the one who is ignorant about a young generation who have enough on their plate without having to listen to your rambling nonsense.

Besides the cricket club, I have spent loads of time around kids in the last fifteen years as virtually all my peer groups scattered around Hampshire and Berkshire have children of their own. They are all have their own ways and quirks of nature, but I have never had problems with any of them, no more problems than my parents had with me and their parents had with them.

Being a youth is a period in life where adjustments in to adulthood take place, and though us, shall I say more mature people, want to to tell them that world is their oyster, teenagers have worries just like anyone else. Quite frankly, if my own children didn’t have a rebellious phase, I would be disappointed, I would rather that than have them turning in to bigoted, miserable fools like you, someone who is bitter that youth has passed you by.

The only think I dislike about the young generation is the fact that they have a lot more healthy years ahead of them than I do, but I still love hearing about the adventures they get up to, even if I am a bit jealous. What makes me laugh is that the imbecile who wrote that rant  claims that he would like to be treated how he treats others.

If he started looking at how he treats the young generation he might find the answer that actually, he is getting treated how he treats others, as he seems to condemn them without good reasoning and expects them to call him sir when he walks in to a room. Who is this twat? Some sort of pompous self appointed Knight of the Realm?

He sounds like a horrible, spiteful man to me, certainly not one I would go out of my way to open a door for. It is a pretty simple fact of life that if you treat people with resentment and prejudice you are not going to get much in return.

We all know that youth sometimes seems wasted on the young, but that is not a good reason to make sweeping assumptions that they are all a good for nothing bunch of impolite scumbags, when in my experience, they are actually quite the contrary.