2 September 2012
Just a little rant.
Many parents complain that their teenage kids need attitude adjustments. Just before you become a teenager, already dealing with the stresses of life, your parents gradually become stricter. Why?
Parents live in dread of teenage years. They have it in their heads that teenagers are just difficult. Some may be, but it's not fair to categorise everyone the same. They should wait until it starts happening before they give out the punishments.
What counts as a sentence when you're 10 counts as cheek when you're 14.
Parents just live in so much dread that they're kidding themselves. True, teenagers test the boundaries. But that's what it's about!
"I would never talk to my mother that way!"
I'm sure you would. I'm using sentences.
Sarcasm is a sin in the eyes of parents.
So is a sense of humour.
Sure, maybe I'm being unfair. But I'm sick of being punished for things I'm not doing! They've convinced themselves that teenagers are unable to have a conversation, so they just interpret everything as backcheek.
Constant reminders of how they'd speak to their parents, but then you hear them saying the same sentence you said.
Being a teenager is hard enough. Sure, everyone says it. But being a teenager IS confusing, and we need gentle guidance, not punishments.
For me, announcing I got a B is like announcing I'm smoking. It can get me grounded AND a lecture. If I try to say something at the end of that lecture, like: "I know, I get it, I'm sorry." I'll get screamed at for cheek.
Parents have stressed themselves out over teenage years. They shouldn't worry. Teenagers become what they're being punished for.
So, if you're punishing your teenage daughter for saying something you think is disrespectful, over time she will start being disrespectful, so she's being punished for something she's actually doing. She can't explain, because that just makes it worse.
So stop complaining about the teenagers. It's your own fault for being scared of what wasn't going to happen.
Teenagers • Opuss № I