SE23 Forum

Yesterday afternoon, myself and another of the guys from a flat in my block were doing some gardening in the plots around the building. We'd undertaken a fair amount of pruning/mess making when three local teenagers jumped over a nearby wall. I'd seen these kids playing in the nearby building site before and was keeping an eye on our tools as I worked.

They cautiously came over and were interested that we'd been cutting back the overgrown shrubs with a saw. They'd clearly not seen a handsaw before, but in any case offered their services as "we're not doing anything anyway." They were great, and made light work of clearing up the mess that we'd taken about an hour to create.

It made me think that often (myself included) some people are quick to deride the kids hanging around on the street - but in reality if there were organised things (and there may well be, but obviously these kids seemingly aren't going to them) for them to do that gave them something to do - our community would be richer for it.

What a nice story!

I agree. I am a walking bag of nerves at times with all the stories of car hijacking, stabbings and robbery I hear in the news on a day to day basis.

But what about the youngsters who volunteer, have impeccable manners and are real pleasant be around.

When do we ever hear about them ?

We had a similar experience down in Home Park in Sydenham on Saturday. We were opening a new community garden in the park. It was great seeing how enthusiastic they were at growing vegetables and how much some of them know about it which had been passed down by their parents.

Great to see.

I confess when I first saw this thread I thought, oh no, not another street robbery etc, so feel very ashamed of myself when I read it! Nice stuff.

This should earn them a custodial sentence, but instead some do-gooder will praise them to the sky.

The world has gone mad.

Heartwarming story.
Reminds me of my childhood days

Really nice story to read........... the title made me also quite nervous. Its good to also hear positive stories.

With the current climate regarding kids all about Gangs & Gang culture and stabbings, shootings & muggings, this is indeed a heart-warming story - dont believe this is the only instance of this sort of thing, we should be promoting and shouting more about this

Well be warned, this is a nice story but I saw an attempted burglary on the corner of Marler & northwood road just yesterday evening and this is the 4th I know about in as many months along the same stretch of road. THe 2 white youths were aged 10 and maybe 13 and were both smoking cigarettes??!!! They jumped over the fence into the house and were caught in the act. There were 4 adults so confronted them and told them to be on their way. Be warned and be vigilant.

Sorry - I was warmed by this nice tale but sadly I also know of theft this week in SE23 too. Heart is cold, cold, cold again now. Bring on winter again so they aren't tempted to stay out late.

Sadly in life, there are always some bad apples, yet for these kids so young to be attempting to break into houses is really bad and very sad state of a world we now inhabit