Straight Talk asks teens: What bugs you most about your parents’ generation?
From Sawyer, 13: What bugs me about most parents is that they’re afraid to let us explore the real world because it might not be safe so they overprotect us when it comes to walking down the street or going trick-or-treating but they are completely lenient when it comes to letting us sit for hours in front of Halo 2 or eating junk food and getting fat. I mean, life in most American towns is not violent and dangerous, but the electronic games are violent and obesity is a danger.
From Farren, 17: Parents don’t know what it’s like to be a teenager today. They’re so stressed out on their own lives they simply dole out punishment and don’t sit down and learn who we are and what we’re going through. Others are naïve. They don’t realize there’s cocaine and pot and pain killers everywhere at high school or that their daughter is sleeping around. Kids today don’t know how to de-stress themselves and so they do it in negative ways. Basically, parents need to set the values but then back off enough so that we can explore our own beliefs and make our own mistakes. We need parents to believe in us, to be there when we need them, to love us when we make a mistake. That’s what is lacking: parents getting to know who we are and loving us for who we are. Why would kids NOT use drugs and sleep around—they want to feel loved! Drugs and sex feed the lonely feeling which is the lack they feel in their family life.
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