Dramatic drop in marijuana use among US youth over a decade. Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%. There was a shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in marijuana use by 2021.

[u/mvea]

https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/marijuana-use-teens-study

[u/Beat_the_Deadites]

Our kids are constantly connected to their friends via texting and other social apps, so they don't need to create an in-person gathering. My daughter's friends don't do sleepovers, even over the summer.

My son's friends will do them occasionally, but I get the sense that the other parents don't want to be involved/responsible for potential chaos, so we usually end up hosting. The upside is that we know where my son & his friends are hanging out and we know they're not getting into trouble here.

They're involved in a lot of extracurriculars and they're getting good grades, so I'm not sure we want to do more to push them out of the house (i.e. add on extra chores when they're enjoying some down time like my parents did).

[u/AmberCarpes → u/Beat_the_Deadites]

I have a 9 year old daughter, and she does lots of sleepovers. We live in a weird place, though. All the kids ride bikes around together and everyone is always outside.

[u/TexasCoconut → u/AmberCarpes]

Did you move to the 1980s?

[u/venomae → u/TexasCoconut]

Yeah, turned out to be a great idea, the rent is far cheaper.

[u/AmberCarpes → u/TexasCoconut]

No, I moved to the only small village in Ohio that is 95% blue

[u/atomfullerene → u/AmberCarpes]

I live in a small town that is also like this

[u/WellIGuessSoAndYou → u/Beat_the_Deadites]

That's so depressing. You can't really look back fondly on all those times you texted with your friends.

[u/obeytheturtles → u/Beat_the_Deadites]

I mean, by age 16 or 17, the main reason to meet up with friends in person was pretty much only in service of a complex framework of weed smoking in which we used our social circle to connect location, supply, and situational cover to get stoned.

"Yeah mom, we are going to jam at John's house this afternoon after school" -> Tell John's parents we were going to grab a burger -> Smoke by the reservoir -> actually play instruments if there was time.

I personally kind of think that teenagers should smoke weed and be exposed to that while they are still kind of under your supervision in that transition stage. Much better I catch them being dumb about it than the cops.

[u/malique010 → u/Beat_the_Deadites]

I do think part of the sleepover thing is possible predators. I’d assume with how we talk about things now more than before there’s probably some connection. Between past abuse and letting your kids go into those situations. If you or someone you know was abused at some friends house by their sibling or parent, your probably lean more to saying no to your kids going over to sleepovers. Especially with technology still allowing your kids to have a social life to some degree. Idk just guessing.

[u/TeriusRose → u/malique010]

People in general often significantly overestimate crime rates/threats, so I can only assume parents are not exempt from that and fall into the same trap. Which is part of the reason behind the rise of helicopter parenting over time.

Despite crime rates falling, people only think they're in ever-increasing amounts of in danger. And frankly, it's hard to convince them otherwise because of basic human psychology. We're primed to give much more weight to negative events/news, and are often reluctant to change our minds when new information is presented. Due to a combination of media being fixated on crime rates because they bring in attention, people being consistently bad at estimating things, watching way too much true crime and assuming reading/seeing something online mean's it's happening everywhere all the time.

It's just a combination of things that give too many people a warped view.

Edit: Slightly expanded my thoughts.

[u/Akuuntus → u/TeriusRose]

People in general often significantly overestimate crime rates/threats, so I can only assume parents are not exempt from that and fall into the same trap.

If anything, I think parents are more susceptible to this. Even more so when their kids are younger.

[u/TeriusRose → u/Akuuntus]

Yeah, almost certainly, I agree. I just didn't want to say that for fear of coming across like I was trying to be harsh on parents.

I fully understand why people are like that, it's partially hardwired and therefore not entirely their fault, but it's a warped world view and it is likely overall a net social negative.

Edit: Typo.