Dear Teenagers…(my reply)

Dear Teenagers, if we just let you drink a little bit with your friends, we’d have to clear up the sick, while you and your mates have their heads down toilet bowls because you have absolutely no idea about self control, or that playing the shots game is a bad idea – everyone learns the hard way, but we don’t want to be there. If we let you have sleepovers with the opposite sex, we would be making our house into a knocking shop, having to deal with blocked toilets with, at best, condoms, at worst a shed load of toilet paper. If we let you dress how you wanted, you would not be able to afford it and would end up having to sell drugs or go into prostitution to fund your needs. If we let you look how you wanted, you would never forgive us twenty years down the line, when your kids are looking at photos of you, looking like a complete twat. If we didn’t ban you from your friends who are bad influences, you would be banged up by now, looking a lot less cool than you thought you were. If you are seriously blaming your need to judge and bully on us, then shame on you. At some point you must start to take responsibility for your own thoughts and actions. When the shit hits the fan, it’s left to us parents to sort it out. Dear Teenagers, just accept that you don’t yet know everything. Until you can afford to make your own way, stop spouting bollocks and take the time, every now and again, to just listen.