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THE CONCEPT OF having “cop on” is one most of us will be familiar with, probably because our parents at one time or another told us we were lacking it after we did something stupid or reckless as teens.
The modern age has created a whole new set of challenges – and dangers – for today’s children to face and more than ever they need to have their wits about them.
Unfortunately, according to one child and adolescent psychotherapist in Ireland, today’s children are seriously lacking in ‘cop on’ and if we want them to survive in the world, we better start drumming it into them fast.
With the rise of technology in the family home, Colman Noctor said there “seems to be a dilution of the capacity to develop ‘cop on’, the capacity to look at adversity and challenges and make a decision based on reflection, even if it’s an unpopular decision”.
It’s all about being savvy, thinking of the consequences and looking before you leap.
“Nowadays, we take a picture and put it straight on Facebook, there’s no real moments of reflection. You could never be bored again, even for a moment, standing in a queue in Lidl or just sitting waiting somewhere, you always have your phone as a distraction.”
For adults, the technological encroachment is not such a big issue, as Noctor explained we all have a ‘pre-Internet identity’ and know where the line is.
Many of today’s children are failing to learn the value of simple traits like tolerance and patience because the technology around them is so fast and offers so many options. But the real world is not always like that.
“It’s important to be able to see that you can not get what you want but will still survive,” Noctor said. “That’s an important lesson for life.”
I think the world has changed so much for family life, so how do we hold on to some of that traditional stuff that really is so vital?
This colloquial term, ‘cop on’, used by so many frustrated Irish parents over the years, is the title of the psychologists book, as he believes it is one of the best values to teach a child.
Teenagers in particular are extremely vulnerable online and not just when it comes to sexual predators or cyberbullying. Social media used to be about sharing feelings. Now, Noctor said teens are posting pictures and statuses online to “generate feelings”, leaving evaluation of their self-worth in the hands of followers who will either like, share, retweet and favourite their post, or not.
So what do you do if you want to make sure your kids have enough ‘cop on’ to get through life in one piece?
“Before, you only had to compete with siblings for your parents’ attention, now you have an iPhone to contend with too,” Noctor quipped.
When it comes to deciding to let your children use technology, 13 is the recommended age for letting a teen set up a Facebook page and at this age, you should be friends with them on the site and monitoring most of what they do, then take a step back as the years go on.
“That’s the importance of ‘cop on’ really,” Noctor said. “When they do something wrong, chances are you won’t be there, so you have to be in their head when it happens.”
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Taste of his own medicine…..welldone french police
Would have preferred that he would suffer through the remainder of his life in a prison tbh rather than such a quick end.
Sounds like he killed himself jumping out the window coward to the end
Yes, Shane. Coward. As they all are. It must never be forgotten that he murdered children in cold blood. To hell with him.
Shane it was a ground floor apartment so I don’t think he jumped out the window to commit suicide!
Gearoid ye it had said it was a 5 story building and wasn’t sure what floor he was on , sure ended up he got a bullet in the skull from a police sniper .
Instead of 50 virgins in paradise, he’s, hopefully, simply stone dead.
It’s 72 virgins actually.
In fact there’s an argument about the translation of the word “virgin”, it could be “grapes”. So these nuts are looking forward to dying for a bunch of grapes :)
72 Susan Boyles…..aaagh
Inevitable end really,he was dead when he went into that house but I would’ve liked to see him rotting in a lonely dull cell for the rest of his life
About time!!
Real shame he wasn’t captured alive and put on trial. This was too quick an end for him.
Unfortunately he may be seen as a hero to extremists and may inspire other attacks.
LePen and her neo Nazi kind will use this to further ingrate tensions between France and it’s north african minority.
I’m also surprised that a lot of reports ignore the fact that his first victims were french muslim soldiers.
Headshot whilst jumping from a window..? Good amount of XP for that!
I’m actually so disappointed that it ended like this he got exactly what he wanted jumping out of a window guns blazing, to nutters like him he will be seen as a hero. Justice for the families would have been for him to see out the rest of his days in little 4/4 cell somewhere. But I guess there was very little the police could do it was almost inevitable that he was not going to be taken alive.
The commandos weren’t up to much by the sounds of it. This lunatic seemed to have the upper hand from day one. Should have brought in the SAS.
Dens do you try take the proverbial piss on everything? Seriously a therapist would have nightmares with you.
The French RIAD unit regularly train with other elite units like the SAS and GIGN, at the end of the day a nut with a fully automatic machine gun in a small apartment can get a lucky shot off. Job well done by them anyway.
Arrogance ….. You should have gone over there and shown them how to do it Denis.
Allez Les Blue.
Simple question comes to mind, where did he get the gun/s – in particular the machine gun/s?
A kalashnikov can be picked up in the suburbs of Marseille for 400 Euro
“Jumped” yeah right.
good shot!!!
Well done to the French Police. What a scumbag I have no sympathy for him.
Sarkozy said in a statement that this lunatic has been under police surveillance for a number of years. Obviously not the other day when he committed murder. Any terrorist who is considered a threat should be locked up instead of getting a police escort which doesn’t work anyway.
Allen les Blue
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