The Youth of Today ....

If you believe the tabloid headlines, you probably think everyone under 21 carries a weapon and takes drugs.

If that's your mindset, everything you see and hear will feed into that preconception and appear to confirm your worst fears.

I was looking at my two boys sitting on the tube today and trying to see them through such eyes.

At close to 6', 14 year old First Born towers over most adults.
Little Guy, aged 11, is smaller and grungier and is currently sporting an impressive black eye.
If you searched FB's bag, you would find a blunt instrument (a rolling pin) and a small plastic bag of herbs.

You would assume the worst, wouldn't you ...?
Go on, admit it.
It's highly unlikely you'd assume they were on their way to visiit their 94 year old grandfather to make pizza for him ...

And the black eye?
Yesterday, the 2 of them were cuddling. (Yes. Cuddling.)
LG pulled away and turned smack into a pole.

He's actually very pleased with the result:

• It looks satisfyingly spectacular
• It looks a lot worse than it feels
• It's the one place on his body that he can't see, so doesn't have to deal with the anxiety.

FB, on the other hand, is mortified. He can hardly bear to look at LG and is consumed with guilt, feeling (wrongly) that he was responsible.

The youth of today -
- deserve to be judged by their actions and not their appearance.