The Line Between Caring and Overbearing.

I believe that parents do have the right to know what is going on in the lives of their children. It’s only natural to be protective of your kids. However, there are boundaries that parents should respect. I imagine that adults wouldn’t like having their privacy constantly invaded and being treated as if they were untrustworthy, so expecting teenagers to put up with that sort of treatment isn’t exactly fair. I can’t see any teen that I know going along with the agenda of nosy parents either.

At younger ages, such as fourteen, parents should pay close attention to what’s going on with their kid. There’s a lot of changes that go on during that time and sometimes kids don’t deal with it as well as others might. Having enough insight into how a teenager is feeling and what they may be dealing with can really save a lot of trouble from happening down the road. Kids that are that young aren’t mentally mature enough to make the right choices in some situations, so I think parents need to be there to give them guidance and support. Rules like where they go, who they see outside of school and how late they’re allowed to be out may seem unfair and I know they make most teenagers angry, but those are only set in place for our own good.

For example, when I was growing up my parents told me I had to be home before the streetlights came on (which in my opinion was ridiculously early, but alas). Sure, I whined about it because come on, it was a stupid rule, and I always pushed the rule to the limit. Nevertheless, I look back on it now and I know they only made that rule for my own safety. They just didn’t want their thirteen year old daughter running around the neighborhood in the dark alone.

However, as teenagers get older parents should learn to ease up on how controlling and prying they are with their kids. Nineteen years old, for example, is a bit old for a parent to be telling them what time to come home and who they can’t hang out with. Eventually all teenagers have to grow up and move out, essentially becoming independent from mom and dad. Keeping too close of a watch on someone who just wants to grow up makes them feel stifled and quite frankly irritated with their parents. Of course we know that adults mean well, and they only want to protect us from at least part of the bad things in life, but they can’t do that constantly. Restricting us in too many ways keeps up from experiencing life and learning valuable lessons first-hand.

Revenge

I think that the act of getting revenge on someone for wronging you is a more common thing than people think. It doesn't necessarily have to be something extreme like in a Shakespeare play. Getting revenge on someone can be doing something simple to him or her as payback. I don’t think that many people really realize that they’re getting revenge whenever they decide to take defensive actions against someone. We just see it as “getting even”.

A lot of crimes that people commit are fueled by the desire to get revenge. If someone has a loved one who is murdered, they may feel like killing the person who did it will make them feel better. Still, something as serious as death doesn’t need to be involved. People who are stolen from may take something back from the thief, or might try to give a disrespectful person a little grief in their life.

An example that I can think of is something that I witnessed a long time ago. I won’t mention any names, but an individual that was my friend during middle school did not get along with another student. It was pretty much a hate/hate relationship. They were always fighting and making life tough for one another. One day the other kid took this person’s books from their bag and hid them around the classroom before class could begin. When my friend discovered what had happened, and who was behind the disappearance of their reading materials, they told me that they were going to get them back.

This final act of revenge didn’t occur until about a week later. The middle school served breakfast every morning. On this particular morning, a cold December day, the tile flooring had become slick due to snow being tracked inside on people’s shoes. The “enemy” of this scenario was walking to one of the tables with their juice and toast, and as they moved past our own table my friend quickly stuck out their foot and tripped them. Of course the person went flying and their breakfast wound up all over the floor in a giant mess. As if this embarrassment was not enough, the entire lunchroom burst into laughter at their misfortune. My friend was able to conveniently blame the slick flooring on it, but the other person knew what had really happened. So, the battle between them continued on for the rest of the year.

I learned from this experience that revenge is a common thing that people do without really thinking about it. I also realized that while cathartic at the time, revenge scarcely solves the problem entirely.