The Secret Lives of Teenagers

If you are a teenager, have you ever thought that parents may know more than you think? And if you are a parent, have you ever thought about what your teen might not be telling you? This is a serious question in today's world. Today's teenagers are becoming more and more sexually active and experimental with illegal substances (i.e. marijuana, alcohol, etc.). This poses a problem for the parents, because what they know about their teen may not be the truth.

Parents nowadays are setting looser reigns on their teens, allowing them to stay out later, nonexistent curfews. This "lack of boundaries" gives the teenager the ability so essentially do whatever they want. Teenagers tend to choose the more "pushing the limits" types of things. Which refers back to the illegal stuff and the sex. Parents put on the appearance that they are oblivious to these actions, when really I think they are afraid to admit what their teenager is doing.

That leads into a whole other subject for discussion. I have had talks with many parents that did crazy things when they were teens. For sake of making this easier to follow, we'll call the person in this certain incident Mrs. G. Mrs. G was a somewhat rebellious teenager. "I had fun in high school..." she told me. Some of her experiences include the whole experimental drinking and your "run of the mill" (that was a complete understatement) scavenger hunts. But when I asked her what she would do if her daughter called her and was completely wasted, she replied, "Well, I don't really know." My first thought was well, if our parents could do all this stuff when they were teens, what's wrong with it now?

However, I am not saying teenagers should do any of the stuff mentioned above, I am just wondering, whats wrong with it? I can honestly say that I have never done anything of the items listed above and I don't plan to. Simply because I know that my parents' reactions would not be good. I be out of show choir, out of everything I love. So I do not even try to push the limit.

For those teenagers that have all ready done those sorts of things. I do not judge you for such activities. Curiosity is built into our systems. Teenagers are expected to bend and brake rules. Trying new things is the "norm."

Will you give in to the norm?

P.S. Mrs. G, I am sorry for revealing a few of your stories. Luckily not in depth :)