A good form of independence later on in life doesn't necessarily come from how much you party or go out with friends during your teenage years. It comes from being able to make the right decisions for your future, despite the drawbacks in the present, such as choosing to stay home and study and get good marks, and party later when you have the time. Also, parents don't want you to be married at the age of 20. In fact they'd much prefer you married in your early thirties than pregnant or with an STI at 17
Yes, because managing everything for us is absolutely the best way to teach us to make good decisions, and I absolutely need adults to tell me "no, you can't go to the bathroom" because I might miss something important. The best way to prepare for the future is to get that responsibility, because if we don't have the ability to test the limits while we're teens, we're going to screw up far harder when we're adults. A good form of independence comes from being able to gradually get independence. Also, 90% of the time, the kids who get pregnant at 17 (and I know 4 couples who have had kids at a young age and for all of them this was the case) it's not because they get too much freedom, it's because they get none and they rebel. Try trusting and respecting teenagers once in a while, most of them are capable of not fucking up their lives entirely.
I think the real problem is trying to oversimplify the changes that are taking place in adolescents. You cannot cover enough in a 1-2 page article to get a clear picture of the biological, social, and psychological changes going on at this time.
I used to say how much I hated my own age group because we're looked at as lazy and selfish. I realized the reason I was doing this was because I felt the only way I was going to be respected was if I completely disaffiliated from something I can't control.
Finally the truth has been spoken! Teenagers aren't just moody and I am so tired of being called moody when I'm upset with something. Can't someone just be genuinely upset at something that happened. Its not all just hormones.
This is so true. I actually cried a bit, only an bit though. Whenever I didn't want to do something, such as read a second grade level book in eighth grade, my parents thought I was just rebelling or something. It was just not going to be a fun book to read.
You may be rational (cleverness has nothing to do with it), but teenagers as a whole are not known for their rationality, and this is particularly due to hormonal changes during gonadarche in the pubertal onset. People on here have to realise that parents aren't overly afraid of teens being moody or making some silly decisions every now and then. It's natural. They might be scared at the time but that's natural for them as well. But you people need to realise that you and many people on here (being mature for your age) are not the majority. Most parents (and adult members of the community alike) are rightfully afraid of changes and risk taking in teens that is a little more extreme than sleeping in or arguing with your parents. It is naive of a 16 year old such as the one in this article to think that the articles in question are aimed at dealing with someone like him/her, as well as thinking all teenagers behaviour is influenced in the same way as him/her.
Hormones might make us moody sometimes, but I for one (at 19 now) have seen a hell of a lot more adults who act irrationally all the time than teenagers. This post is relevant because moody or not, teenagers are human beings, and we deserve respect. And moodiness isn't the only thing - adults writing about us being a "generation of victims" or "everyone wins", well who raised us that way?
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