Shut up, Mom and Dad. We get it already
Becca Morozin
I am no stranger to those infamous words “As long as you live in my house you’ll obey my rules” and “Until you’re 18…”
Oh, how they pain me. Nagging, of course, is a favorite of parents. But how can we learn from our own mistakes if we have parents constantly over our shoulder? We need to make our own lives, not be led by our parents.
Parents feel that they need to control every aspect of their kids’ lives. They love to torture their offspring with painfully long talks about the importance of listening to them (because they know best). Just because they are much older than us does not mean they are right.
Parents are the biggest control freaks. High school is a key time in our lives, and we need to learn how to function independently before we are out on our own. Ultimately, we are the ones in charge of our lives, and need to exercise our independence in order to gain life experiences.
(Parents, you shouldn’t still be making your teenagers’ lunch, doing their laundry etc.) Those parents who pester their kids, asking them who they’re talking to; invade privacy, reading texts and emails of their children; and stalk facebook, seriously need to get a life.
As teenagers, we will make mistakes, and it is important that we learn from them now, rather than later in life. We need to make our own choices so we learn right from wrong. It is likely that someone kept under the strict rules of their parents will eventually break and rebel.
And then there are those obvious lies parents use to make us feel bad “Oh, if I had done that in my day…” Yeah, right. Parents love to make it seem like they were perfect angels and always listened to their parents. Chances are when they were our age, they messed up just as much, if not more, than we do.
When we confront our parents about this, they say, “I don’t want you to make the same mistakes as I did.” While this is kind, our parents have made many mistakes throughout their lives, and with the many struggles came positive results. People are made by their experiences. In order to experience life, we must make mistakes.
I’m not saying parents should have no part of our lives. We need them! They just need to stop their suffocation so we can learn on our own.
Parents, you might actually have a point
Taylor Alkemade
"Clean your room!" "Do your homework!" "Wash the dishes!"
Sound familiar?
Lectures from parents affect nearly every household in America. Long, drawn out, nagging sessions wreak havoc upon our daily lives. Daily activities, all the way from homework to our social lives, are interrupted with these educational lectures. Why do our parents force us to sit through their endless bouts of "wisdom"?
On the outside, it appears that they just revel in watching us suffer. When we take a closer look at the situation, we see that it’s not just the fact that they like to watch us suffer (though that is a contributing factor). Somewhere in each of their drawn out lectures, lies true information that is vital to each and every one of us if we’re going to grow into "responsible" adults.
Our parents, believe it or not, lecture us because they want us to be better. No, not better than the kid who sits next to us in math or even that kid who got accepted into Harvard. They want us to be better than they were. Than they are. They want us to be more prepared than they were so that we don’t make the same mistakes they did.
Procrastination? Fun for now, but it just comes right back to bite you.
Smoking? It’s gonna be hard to quit when you’re thirty.
Drinking? The decision to get a tramp stamp that actually says "tramp stamp" is not a sober decision.
See my point?
They’ve practically lived through the same temptations we have, and who are we to say we couldn’t use their helpful information?
My own father (who is probably reading this right now, brainstorming ways to have an educated "discussion" about this very topic) is no exception. He wants me to become a mature, responsible adult. Even though the likely hood of that is slim, I’m going to be a better person because of everything he tells me. I want to become a person that he can be proud of.
I may not get a Nobel Peace Prize, and I may not go to the best college, but I can almost promise you that I will become a person I can be proud of before it’s too late to turn back. And for that, I have no one else to thank but my dad. It doesn’t mean I’m not independent. It doesn’t mean I’m a daddy’s girl. It means that I know when to listen to advice.
Illustration by Paige Webb