[Stingy Jack]

Well, I think the trend here is rebellion. Teenagers HAVE to rebel against their parents at some point in order to psychologically establish a sense of independence. And the parents HAVE to fight the kids in this rebellion, otherwise the independence would not feel as if it was truly earned. How are you independent if your parents gave you that independence? This is why, I think, kids who have extremely lenient parents tend to be more rebellious than other kids, either through violence, drugs, or some other crimes. The kids with the lenient parents keep pushing their parents, hoping to get that fight out of them. And they go to more and extreme methods to get it.

But, since kids in each generation have to rebel, the parents of each generation become more and more lenient. Think back to Elvis Pressley ... that is pretty tame schtuff. And yet, my mother recalls the day when she had to fight her mom to get to watch him on Ed Sullivan. So, it took a bit more to shock my mom than it did to shock my grandmother. And the trend keeps going. The "teenage" stuff becomes more and more shocking as the parents become more and more "well, I did THAT when I was thier age."

Imagine what it's going to take to shock the teenagers of this generation when THEY become parents?