children in crises

Here we go again,today there was an article on our local newspaper on how suicide amongst teenagers is rising,and my toughts went to a boy a classmate of my daughters here in Lund,Sweden.He to took his life in a very disturbing way ,not that it is not disturbing anytime a child feels this life is not worth living,he threw himself infront of a train a sixteen year old.

I remember that we used to live near the station at and the now familiar screech from the train as they try to stop it when something that should not be there is on the trains way.

I am a mother a single mother mt heart to this day bleeds everytime i think of him,a conversation with my daughter explained to me that the boy was very lonely come probably from economically challanged family so did not allways wear the most uptodate clothes,probably did not own most of the gadgets that our children must have these days to even start to feel they are worth anything cellphones that preferably have to be changes every year to the latest models,designer clothes,comupters allso preferably changed every year to the latest type,flatscreen tv in the livingroom and their bedrooms,money so that they can go to coffe bars that charge a minimum of sek 30 per coffe the list goes on and on.

Since he died in our small town of Lund there have been at least 10 suicides amongst teenagers the latest one a boy from my sons old school a 15year old,that boy spent so many sleepovers at my house when they where 8-9 years old.My son came home and told me and I did not know how to react should I hug him I wanted to cry even screem why why what have we done to these children why can we not see how bad they feel,why is it not a national or even international crises everytime a child decides this life is not worth living.

As a single mother i know how hard it is to provide what seems to be a neccesity for children these days,x-box costs minimum of 2000 sek every game cd unless they download it from the internet somhow sek 500,a cellphone unless bought on blocket or whatever webstore you have for secondhand trade sek 3000 and ofcourse a minimum of sek 75 for each phone card lets not even go into flatscreen tv designer jeans cost .....Now alltough even children to privilaged parents commit suicide and find themselves in emmotional crises today I will bet that undeprivilaged children are overrepresented.

If the mobilphone producers such as Ericson,nokia etc... are allowed to market their latest products targeting our children then they should subcidize is so that all of us can afford to give our teenager the latest one every year,tough why a perfectly functional phone gets discarded every year is beyond me.

As to the bully mentality we tell our children that its wrong you should never stand for anyone at your school or getting bullied and yet what do they see every night on" garbage TV" which is what I call reality shows,such as IDOL,Big Bully Gordon Ramsay,Big brother and the list goes on and on people getting bullied ,insulted because they are not the coocks they tought they where,or because they tought that they could actually be models,it makes me want to scream seeing these amazingly beautiful girls on top model being discarded week after week by TYRA BANKS standing there as tough she has discovered the cure for aids,telling them that the judges have decided you are not enough so pack your bags and go home,isnt it heart breaking to see these young girls standing there infront of the so called judges shaking crying so affraid of rejection by the mighty TYRA BANKS and her posy.If that is not public bullying then I dont know what.So when these pretty,intelegent girls get thrown out week after week what do you think it does to our kids does it not encourage bullies to continue bullying,and the bullied to feel that i am not worth anything anyway I might as well check out.....Look I like entertainement even more so than the next guy i think but I am a mother of a teenage boy and a 21year old daughter,everytime I see these girls I see my daughter,everytime I see that pompous jerk Simon Cowell humiliating a young person for participating on a show that he is making millions from,mind you it is because of the humiliation factor these shows are popular and yet a young adult gets insulted,humiliated and cast away on live TV infront of our children...why should they not do the same to a classmate,or a friend that does not match up to their standard????Why should they say no to bullying those that in one way or another dont measure up.

The others most just feel bad and just not good enough and some just decide it is not worth it i might as well die,if I am not pretty enough,or dont have all the gadgets,some are children not only to single mom and dads hard working people who would love to give them everything they can but the ends jsut dont meet enough every month .Many are children to alcoholics,drug abusers,mentaly and physicaly burned out parents so they have none to console them at home,when all this junk that is in their face every day overwhelms them.

What do the cost these shows in these days of crises it makes you wonder how much and what could have been done with that money instead.Now I dont mean that the sole reason it "garbage TV " that our children are getting more and more deppresed for but I would give an arm or a leg to bann such shows from ever getting produced.

I would like to hear if any other parent in Sweden or anywhere else in the world feels what I feel.......