A Teen's Guide To Parents

You must be thinking that I am just a random teenage girl. What the hell do I know about parenting, right? Well, you are right. I don't have any kids, so I don't know how to raise kids. At all. But I am a teenager. Hence, I know how our mind works. (Well, at least a girl's mind. I have no idea how a guy's mind works) I know how we work. So, I am going to let you know a little secret to earning your daughter's respect, love, and compliance. All you need to do is just one thing.

TRUST! Earn their trust. Now, you must be thinking, "What the hell? Our kids already trust us! We provide them with everything they need, don't we?" Yes. Yes, you do provide us with everything we need and we love you for that. Really, we do. We just do not show it because you do not show us your love. I mean, I know that your affection is hidden in your actions, but we aren't psychics, are we? We won't know until and unless you show it, and when you show it, we will take a step, too.

Now, back to the topic. We trust you, alright. We trust enough to let you know somethings. But, there are somethings we are not very sure about. There are some secrets we can not tell you in a million years! You know when there are somethings we kids say that hurt you so much? Well, sometimes you say some stuff that either hurts us so much that we can't express our feelings, or threaten us so much that we can't say anything to you.

Take my parents for example. I love them. They are my life. God bless them. But sometimes they just hurt me so much that I decide to never tell them anything. Today, I  was telling my mother about how a friend of mine was on a house arrest because her father discovered that she had a boyfriend. Now, my mother instead of showing some affection towards the girl, she threatened me! She said that if she came to know about my boyfriend, she will do worse to me. Now, do you really think I will tell her about my boyfriend? I would rather die! On the other side, my father. He once said that if I was caught with my boyfriend, he will leave the family and go away somewhere. I mean, I was so threatened at that time! Now, you don't want to do that if you want to know more about your daughter by her.

I mean, this is the age for relationships and breakups! There is nothing wrong in getting into a romantic relationship with a guy! I don't know why you parents don't understand that. I know, you will say that you are worried about you little baby girl. It's cute to be worried about your children. You probably think that the guy she is dating is a wrong guy. You are being protective an there is nothing wrong with that. The only thing wrong is that you are being over protective. Your way of protecting your child is very wrong.

Now think of it this way. The guy is wrong. He is a bad guy and everything else. How will you even know what kind of guy he is unless and until you've met him? How will you know he's bad unless and until you know that he is your girl's boyfriend? And how will you know until she tells you that he is her boyfriend, right? What if she gets into trouble? (Gasp!) What if that guy threatens to spill the beans in front of you? She will commit suicide rather than letting you know about it. You know why? Because she doesn't trust you enough to tell you that she is in trouble. She will try to handle it on her own, but for how long? Unless you know, that burden won't lift off and she will never be happy. The guy will keep blackmailing her and will make her do everything he wants her to do. EVERYTHING!

Now, you know the problem, I guess. Now let's focus on the solution, shall we? You want your daughter to speak her heart to you. If you want that, then it's high time you become a little broadminded. Just let your child know that it's okay to tell you. You won't hurt her. Tell her what's right and what's wrong. Tell her that 16 and dating is okay, but 16 and pregnant is not. She is your daughter, she will take care. She knows what her boundaries are. Tell her that if anything does go wrong, you've got her back. Make her trust you. She will love, respect, and comply to you even more.

When she comes back from her date, don't throw her any glares. Instead, ask her how her date went. Don't instruct her not to kiss (because that's inevitable in a relationship). Just ask her about her first kiss. Ask her about her guy. Meet her guy. See how he is. Maybe, he is a good guy and is improving your daughter.

Secondly, imagine you've just came home tired and your kid starts attacking you with orders/requests to cook for them, or do something for them. You will feel like slapping her/him, won't you? Similarly, when your kid comes home from school or college, instead of asking them to do work, let them cool down. You want your work to be done? Have patience. Ask them politely. No matter how wild we kids are, we have feelings. We also need affection. We too need someone to give us water when we come home tired like we give you water when you come home tired.

Thirdly, don't keep criticizing your child. Don't ever compare us with other kids. How will you feel when we compare you with other parents? Bad, right? We feel bad, too. In fact, we do compare you to others' parents. How cool they are to let their kids have a night out. How nice they are to let their kids wear whatever they want. These are our thoughts.

Last, but not the least. It's for the parents of a girl. Now, I know you want your daughter to be safe. But, LET THEM WEAR WHAT THEY WANT TO! We girls do not dress up to impress boys! Okay, sometimes we do. But not everyone and not always. We wear those clothes because we feel confident when we wear those clothes. We feel like for once, we look beautiful. But then, you people break our dreams just like that! You don't let us wear one piece, or shorts, or crop tops. Those clothes are in fashion. We like to follow the trend. There is nothing wrong about that. So what our bra shows? It's not inappropriate! We girls fight for feminism and against the chauvinists. Do you realize how we feel when our parents are chauvinists themselves?

This was my advice on how to handle teenagers. Trust me, you'll need it. Know in your heart that we love you. Somethings are just essential for you to know. Which I told you just now. Thank you. Love you, parents!

LATER!

CRYING IS NOT LAME!

CRYING IS NOT LAME!

More often I've seen people making fun of others when they cry over a movie or a novel. They find it lame to cry over any movie or a book as it's NOT REAL. These kind of people are called the "practical ones" They are not wrong in their opinion. Okay, maybe, they are not wrong, because they live in the "real world" and not the fictional world. Fine by me, but when they make fun of people who live in fictional world and cry when a fictional character dies or is suffering badly, it's just wrong.

I cry when a fictional character dies. People make fun of me too. By people, I mean my sister and my friends. My sister mainly thinks that it's just a fictional character who died. She's like Chandler from F.R.I.E.N.D.S: "Oh yeah! It was sad when the man stopped drawing the cartoon(Bambi's mother). See what I did there? She finds it particularly funny when I am busy mourning a character's or a dog's death. If that wasn't enough, she tells that to everyone. (Yeah! Like I wasn't embarrassed enough! Bitch!) I used to care about that before and hide it from everyone. But then I thought, What the hell! Why should I be embarrassed? I did nothing wrong. Fine, I agree that I am girly, but I am girl for crying out loud! I have a right to be girly. 

I had an epiphany, that crying ain't lame. I shouldn't be embarrassed for that. For all the girls and boys out there who cry over a book or a movie (yeah, boys cry too) don't be embarrassed. Crying means that you have a heart which welcomes every emotion. When we see a character die, we don't feel the pain of the character, we feel what his/her dear ones would be feeling. We have people who love us too. There are people whom we love too. We experience the pain we would feel when we lost them. We may not be practical, but that doesn't mean that we have to hide what we are feeling.

When the dog in "Marley and me" died, I cried . I love dogs. I am a dog person. When Marley died, I felt the pain the whole family must be feeling. It was clear that the family loved Marley despite of his shortcomings. The funeral that was arranged for ,Marley, just touched my heart to the core. In "The Fault In Our Stars", "Titanic", "P.S I love you", "Ranjhanaa", I cried because I felt the pain of their partners and friends. In "The Hunger Games", I cried because I felt the pain Katniss must have felt when Prim died.I am not embarrassed to cry. Fictional characters may not be real, but they are inspired from the real life characters.

  Boys who cry are the victims of their peers. They are made fun of , because they are not MANLY. Not crying is not manly, but expressing what you feel without being ashamed is. These guys are keepers. They know how it feels to lose someone and they will not lose you at any cost. Okay, crying on basically everything like my ex is lame. Making a big deal out of EVERYTHING is exhausting, like: "Oh my god! I miss you!" "Oh my god! Why aren't you with me?" "Oh my god! You are going to cheat on me!" It's not cute and adorable. You must be thinking that I am a hypocrite. No, I am not. Guys who cry are cute, but guys who cry continuously are not. You need balance, folks!

People who cry are not cowards! In fact they are the bravest. They get it out of their system by crying. Then they get back to normal. They know how to make peace with their minds. Crying for sympathy is another thing.So, boys and girls, go on! Cry out loud without being ashamed. Let others make fun of you if they want to. Boys, don't be ashamed of crying in a chick flick. You guys are the best You have a heart! Girls, don't be afraid of your sister and friends. Haters gonna hate. Let them be. You girls are the bravest. Be proud of who you are.

If you have guts, then go on! Cry! Express how you really feel. Don't keep it in. It's not a crime. CRYING IS NOT LAME!