Hell,

Does anyone have any insite to dealing with an out of control 17 year old, who has no respect for anyone or anything.

Is it me or are our teens getting worse. They seem to have no control and no respect for the law/family/church or even friends

Does anyone have any help for our teens today.

Im having a problem with my 11 and 15 yr olds boys.. With my kids I think its a problem with who they hang out with. We have no real solution yet but we have been taking every thing from them and making them work around the house alot more than usual. Also Ive tried to talk to them more and ask questions about school and life in gerneral without prying. If they think your prying they will clam up. Try to talk to them on their social level.
At this age they are dealing with Girls/boys , peer pressure(drugs, alcohol, ..) Not being cool enough..etc Its not easy being a teenager..

I'm reading How to Talk So Teens Will Listen and Listen So Teens Will Talk. It really sheds a lot of light on this age. It talks about listening to them without projecting your own views on their situations. It shows how to let them learn to trust their own decisions and instincts. Mainly it will get the doors of communication open. They just want to be heard. They want you to think what they have to say is important, even if you think it's misguided. They shut down when you don't listen to them anymore and immediately start in on how it was when you were a teen. They aren't always looking for advice, just validation. It's a really excellent book. I found it in the library. Give it a shot, even if it sounds crazy at first.

To answer your other question, I don't think it's the teens, I think it's the times. Their world spins much faster than ours did, sometimes faster than they're willing to admit they can't handle. They've been fed many of "their" opinions through media and now the internet. When I was a child it was during the 80s, and there wasn't a saturation of what I was "supposed" to be back then, and the momentum was slowly picking up as I was a teen in the 90s.

But our kids are/will be teens in a world where Paris Hilton is idolized, where they will never be "perfect" to anyone unless they fit specific images, where their dreams of success hardly include becoming doctors and firemen, they include being famous and idolized. Suddenly the real world isn't real anymore. And it's hard to live up to what everyone else thinks you should be when you're not even sure yourself. You know? Their lives aren't as easy as some adults might make it out to be.

I really recommend the book and, after/during that, a long roadtrip or weekend away together to implement what's been learned, and it can serve as the moment when you all started over. Good luck.