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Teenagers. How long does it take them to learn sense?
Eighteen years doesn't seem to be enough.
Or to put it another way, I've had eighteen years to understand this child of mine, and I still haven't succeeded.
my 16yr old daughter has just jacked army collage in, after 2 months.
she brought home £900 for the 1st month, and £1k for the last month.
she gave a place up at equestrian collage to go in the army.
she has come out to zilch.......sense? pretty bleeding soon I hope before I kill her.
Mine started asking me about the Aryan Brotherhood just recently, seems one of her new chums is a skin head, she wanted to know what they stood for and what was it all about. 😕
I was a **** when I was a teenager (some say I still am!)
Mine seems to be okay at 18 however I sometimes think it was going to be a struggle for him to see his next birthday at times. 😆
I don't even know how to put this down in words that make sense. He can be so incredibly selfish and thoughtless. Almost all of the time. He's my son though, so what am I supposed to do?
I blame the parents.
The other children (one older and two younger) are just normal, regular people who are a pleasure to be with (the youngest occasionally gets a bit hormonal and goes off in a strop but he can't maintain it very long).
I blame the parents.
Thanks. That's the kind of supportive, constructive remark I come to STW to get 🙂
I was a sensible teenager for the most - I turned into a tool in my twenties - and some would say I'm even worse in my forties 😉
I blame the wife..
I blame crikey's parents 😉
27. I read somewhere that the average age for a persons brain to begin to think of the consequenses of their actions is 27.
Hope that helps. 😉
I blame the wife..
Well, she was the one who poured partially-cooked rice into the sink, causing an epic flood of swollen rice and washing-up water to engulf the kitchen last night, but that kind of problem I can cope with....
Meh.
On the one hand it's a throwaway remark, on the other it should prompt a bit of reflection.
@Oldnpastit - we have two, they are complete opposites, neither are bad or anything other than great kids, but they are going through the teenage stage of finding out who they are and what they think, much of it makes no sense to me.
At the moment our house has one potential Douglas Bader and one potential Lenin, who knows what 2014 will bring - just one big adventure really.
Good luck and hang on. 😀
The actual answer to the question asked is 7 years. That's based on when they start and stop being a teenager as clearly that comes sooner than learning sense.
It will get better, don't destroy your relationship with them now. I can still remember how daft I was. My kids are 19, 23 and 25 - those teenage years are difficult for them and for us as parents, all seem a long time ago now thankfully.
All I can say is it's a damn sight easier being an adult than it was being a teenager. Everything's changing so fast (physical, hormonal, social) you have no idea who you are or what life's about - you're still a kid but want to be an adult but no idea to go about it and you're parents don't seem to want to treat you like an adult and also seem to have forgotten what it's like to be a teenager...
At the same time adults seem to think you should be grateful for everything you have, including your youth!
No easy answers I'm afraid but maybe try and get where he's coming from - it'll be bloody hard for him to tell you himself, he likely doesn't know how to express it...
Lots of people I know found teenage years difficult but turned out ok...
What is it with teenagers?
At that age they know everything, therefore they can see all your flaws and are not prepared to tolerate them.
SImple really, it's you.
Ask any teenager... 🙂
At the same time adults seem to think you should be grateful for everything you have, including your youth!
Youth is wasted on the young.
Voting age should be 26. The initial age limit was set when we all lived (on average) to 60-ish.
oldnpastit - Member
I don't even know how to put this down in words that make sense. He can be so incredibly selfish and thoughtless. Almost all of the time. He's my son though, so what am I supposed to do?
Take away his Xbox for a while.
17 year old step Daughter. What a lazy sod! And has zero respect for her mother sometimes. But I remind her ,that her mum does a hell of a lot more than that useless Dick of a father. She does have her nice moments and she is a intelligent young lady, but my god she leaves the house a shit tip. But if anyone upsets or hurts her ill rip them a new arsehole.
Looking back though I was a lazy little sod, then I joined the Army and had a big wake up call. Now I'm a grumpy gett.
47. I read somewhere that the average age for a mans brain to begin to think of the consequenses of their actions is 47.Hope that helps.
My son came home from University this weekend. I was hoping that going there would mature him up a bit, sadly not.
By the end of the weekend he'd managed to alienate both my and my wife massively by behaving like a complete arse. Even his friends were pointing out how unreasonable he was being. He couldn't wait to get on the train home and I was quite happy to see him go to be frank.
I reckon about 23-24. That's when I started behaving like a relatively normal person and wasn't constantly screwing up everyone around me.
The problem with kids today, is that we've gone and given them a choice.
They go out into the world today in the belief that they can be whatever they want to be. Even if they can't. It's only later in life that they realise that actually, a good thing to do is get a middle management IT job and relentlessly grind out the tedium of work on a one way ticket to a wooden box.
I'm still waiting to be an astronaut.
piemonster - Member
47. I read somewhere that the average age for a mans brain to begin to think of the consequenses of their actions is 47.
Hope that helps.
I can assure you it is much older than that. 🙂
The problem with kids today, is that we've gone and given them a choice.They go out into the world today in the belief that they can be whatever they want to be. Even if they can't. It's only later in life that they realise that actually, a good thing to do is get a middle management IT job and relentlessly grind out the tedium of work on a one way ticket to a wooden box.
I'm still waiting to be an astronaut.
I'm 27 and this has only recently dawned on me.
This Be The Verse
They * you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were *ed up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another's throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don't have any kids yourself.
Philip Larkin