Teenagers - Are They Really As Bad As We Think?
Consider the age in which we live and how difficult it must be to survive as a teenager within our society. In most parts of the civilized world, it is impossible nowadays to allow your child to go anywhere alone, to play or to interact with other children for any length of time unsupervised.
My daughter was over ten years old before I would allow her to be away from home for more than a sleepover, and I noted she was extremely homesick whenever such outings were finally on the agenda. She preferred to pick and choose her moments away from her own doorstep, almost as though she was reluctant to let go of her safety net.
Hardly surprising, considering her sheltered upbringing. Not that there is much choice in the matter for parents of today. The risks of abduction are all too well publicized and the consequences of the unthinkable are served up to us daily in news reports from around the world. Yet we unreasonably expect our children in their late teens to arrive at the point of maturity in spite of the lack in their experience.
We do not allow our children to take care of themselves in any way, shape or form, yet we expect them to miraculously know how to balance a check book
Why is it unreasonable to expect your son or daughter to know the value of a dollar when you have invested most of your parenting years spoiling them rotten and drumming into them with sickening regularity that they need never worry because Mummy and Daddy will always be here for you, dear.
Think about it next time you pull the orange box out from under the couch to start the lecture about why your teenager has gone through most of his or her pocket money again, when it was supposed to be stretched for this or that. Whose responsibility is the latest crisis really; is it theirs or is it yours?
Jan Gamm writes reflections on life with an emphasis on world travel. She has lived in many countries and traveled extensively in the Far East, the Middle East, America, South America and throughout the South Pacific. She writes for fun and for money whenever she can manage it.
Tags: maturity, responsibility, risk, Teenagers. bad