Out of the mouth of babes

I had to do some crazy cramming a few nights ago; I had eleven modules to finish for my Ethics subject. Poor time management on my part [tsk]. Bad time for Mark to not have his Internet access stuff, so we had to leg it to the nearest computer shop. The place was pretty packed with DOTA-playing teenage boys, understandable as it was a weekend night.

As we got settled in front of our units, I started hearing the now typical form of banter between warring sides:

Boy A: P******na, 'ndun ka pala nagtatagong g*go ka! Hayop ka talaga! Ang galing mo.
Boy B: Sige, dito ka lang tumakbong k*pal ka, bibirahin kitang p*ki ng ina ka.
Boy C: Hoy, ano? Bibili na ako ng [beer brand] ha. Ilan? Ilan? Hoy g*go, ilan?
Boy D: Bwakananginamo (in one breath), dalian mo na nga...

I think you get the picture. It was as if we were in a Cussing Conference. And believe me, I hear this all the time from my students, so it didn't affect me as much as it used to.

And then I heard one voice that really REALLY got to me... it was from a young boy, about 10 years old (or younger, I didn't want to look) and he was using "B*llsh*t" in every sentence. It disturbed me so much that I wanted to leave immediately. Among the grown up voices was this cute voice going "Ay, b*llsh*t, namatay ako. B*llsh*t naman." The word sounded so off, you know? I couldn't explain exactly how I felt. Afterwards, I told Mark that my feeling could be akin to how a parent would feel if he watched his child get run over.

The boy was trying so hard to fit in with the older group and the words sounded so forced, so alien, coming out of his mouth. It really made me sick. And on our way out, we saw this little girl, no older than 6 probably, and she was playing The Sims quietly, soaking in the obscene language. Bets on how long it would take her to start using the same cuss words... What is wrong with these babies?!!

January
3 high school girls got stone drunk in a sari-sari store in front of the school. When asked why they did it, they said, "Trip lang."

A grade 5 boy and a first year hs girl got caught making out inside the school. The girl said, "Tuloy natin yung lp natin mamaya ha." LP, we found out, meant laplapan.

Every week, 3rd year and 4th year students compete in DOTA, picking up bets amounting to 2,500 up.

I feel so helpless. If this is the norm, and I think it is, how do we keep our own children from growing up like them? Do we lock them inside the house until they are of marrying age? Because I don't think we, parents, have enough power to counteract this disease. It's so easy to say, "If you raise your child 'correctly', this wouldn't happen. You just need to set the rules and stick to them, et cetera." But is it really enough?

Okay, I sound hysterical. I am.