I AM a night person and I love the night life. It’s pretty much public knowledge as I get regularly spotted in restobars and pubs with live music and entertainment. When I moved to this city, the first thing I navigated were areas where I can safely hang out and enjoy the coldest beers after a day’s work. I’d say this city offers quite a variety of evenings out for nocturnal people like me.
Of the few places I tried hanging out with there are bar strips at the corner of Lacson and Ramos streets that are flocked by a good number of patrons on a nightly basis. But while music is good and everything is very affordable I also get to notice a lot of minors drinking alcohol. Upon inquiring from local friends I was told that the area is prone for a lot of bar fights. Well, youth and alcohol are always a perfect recipe for trouble that usually spoils the fun that nightlife brings.
One could not help but ask what is going on with our youth right now? This is obviously a bold cry for help. They are still kids for crying out and they seemed to be losing control. Just reading from Facebook feeds one would be shocked how desperate and angry our young blood are - posting pictures borderline to pornography, shoutouts loaded with raging anger and subtle expressions of suicide. These red flags are written in bold with matching hashtags for everyone to see and yet we miss them.
Are the adults really that busy to notice and care? Apparently yes. While I was teaching at a university before I used to notice my students eat breakfast at the surrounding food chains near the university and sometimes I have to take a second breakfast just to keep them company. And by dinner time the same food chains are still filled with students. Obviously there is hardly any meal that takes place at home. So what do we expect? They get their sense of right and wrong from their friends who are too young to see the implications of their choices.
This brings me to my point that our young are generally unsupervised and please don't tell me they are old enough to take care of themselves because even if they think they are, they are not.
There has to be a conscious effort of reviving the dinner table in every family. As busy as we are, we need to sit down with our youth on meal times instead of letting them loiter in malls or enjoy their happy meals with peers. A lot of things happen over a simple family meal. In meals tradition and values are passed on from as much as 3 or 4 generations as grandparents talk about their grandparents or as parents talks about how they grew up. Family history is discussed, current events are talked about, and our youth's moral compass are checked. Most importantly the pressures they deal with everyday in school and with their friends get defused. A kid gets cultured over a simple family meal. Even Jesus formed his disciples in the dinner table.
And of course our local government has a great role too. The fact that even minors drink at bars then that means bars were not monitored and that kids have so much time to waste too. The city has to make worthwhile programs for our youth to participate in otherwise they will continue to waste their time for online games and drinking.
Our youth is not fine and is crying for help. Let us do something about it before it is too late. It would not hurt to start with a family dinner at home.