- OMG. Adults can understand text speak. Even worse, they're embarrassing their children by using it and trying to be trendy, according to a survey reported in the Daily Mirror.
"Many mums and dads now regularly use OMG (Oh my God!) to express surprise or BTW (by the way) to change the subject," said the paper. But internet search site Ask Jeeves, which did the poll, also found young people were fighting back with a new set of abbreviations. "For example, they use H9 to mean 'hate a lot', because it's one worse than the well-known H8," reported the Mirror. "A teenager worried a parent is looking over their shoulder will type P999, meaning parent emergency." Nadia Kelly from the website explained: "As parents learn words, the kids will come up with new ones. There is little worse than a grown-up desperate to look cool to kids." LOL.
- "Abergavenny's old boyz in their hoodz" was the headline on the front page of the Abergavenny Chronicle, atop a photo of a bunch of hoodies slouching in front of a graffiti-covered wall.
Look a bit closer and the hooded youths were in fact respectable local citizens, including town mayor Douglas Edwards and local councillor Maureen Powell. The paper was reporting on a new community project designed to bridge the gap between generations. "A workshop has been organised for 4 March at Trinity Hall when the older generation will teach the younger generation to waltz, while the youngsters will teach their elders to hip hop," reported the paper. The newspaper's own Don Chambers was among the silver-haired funsters "helping break down barriers between generations" - without a young person in sight.
- Children are missing out on the joys of the countryside because "middle-class mums" don't want them getting muddy and can't read maps, according to a study in The Daily Telegraph.
"The Hertfordshire University research carried out at a prep school in the south of England found that while children were open to the idea of rambling, their mothers were not confident in the great outdoors," said the paper.
Debbie Pearlman Houghie, a senior lecturer in rural geography at the university, found mums did not know what to do with an Ordnance Survey map and scared children would get hurt. "They are very scared of children not only being run over, but being stolen, even when they are with them," she told The Telegraph. "There also seems to be an obsession about cleanliness. Perhaps because children are in expensive clothes... " Sounds like it's time they headed for the hills with their offspring in tow.
- Who cares about the forthcoming general election? Viewers of a BBC Two documentary were treated to a much more exciting contest last weekend in which young hopefuls competed to become Newham's Young Mayor.
Kaycee de Belen, 16, triumphed in last September's election. "Getting people to vote for you is not as easy as it sounds," she said in a Newham Council press release. Something Gordon Brown knows only too well.
