Keeping it Reel

Parenting can be a daunting task, and we certainly don't make it any easier. As teenagers, we frequently forget that our parents are just as lost as we are. They do the best they can, and try to do what's best for us, but sometimes, they make mistakes. As children, we see our parents as these perfect, flawless people that we should strive to be exactly like. They're our heroes. Growing up, we begin to see the cracks in their once perfect armor, and it's disappointing. Nothing is as it seemed in our simple, child minds. It's confusing and it causes us to be angry and disrespectful and rebellious. Most of the time, there's no reason for our harshness and we're too hard on our parents. We don't know why we act this way, and we know that it's not fair, but we can't stop ourselves. Words pour out of our mouths uncontrollably and we are constantly justifying their wrongness (Question 27). We often feel as though our parents have forgotten what it's like to be our age; how tough it is to change and how uncomfortable we feel. We know that they must have felt this way at one point, but they act like we're just being insolent and uncooperative. They treat us like our behavior is just supposed to be accepted and that our outbursts don't really mean anything. Newsflash: they mean something to us. Parents: talk to your kids. Listen to them; really listen. And don't fake it. We can see through it now. Be genuine and don't get so caught up in trying to be a parent that you forget to be a friend and a mentor (Question 2).

Dan was a columnist for a newspaper who wrote about how hard it is to be a family, and advice on our to parent your kids. It would be interesting to write a column from the perspective of the kids. If i were to write for a newspaper, being a columnist would be really cool. I'd have control over what I wanted to write about, and could live in my own little paper world (Question 3).

As a child, my dad loved to use nicknames. To him, I was Taytor-Tot. It was silly and it drove me insane, but I secretly liked that he had his own name for me. It made me feel special.