Parents...

Why is it that parents believe they always know what’s on your mind, what you’re going through, and exactly what your life is like? Why can’t they understand that times have changed, they don’t read minds, and they’re not /always/ right?

For example, my whole family used to tease me about reaching the “relationship years” and soon being married off. I keep saying that I don’t want that, and don’t want to get married - it’s not essential to living, and I consider it a waste of time and money. Besides, after all the teasing and comments I’ve gotten from my family, who could blame me for not wanting to respond with, ‘’Oh, yes, I actually do have a boyfriend now.’’? So just because my mom can’t adapt to a modern way of thinking and admit that you don’t have to dedicate your life to finding a man to wait on for the rest of your life, she thinks I’m either going straight as a circle or that I haven’t grown up enough to like guys, as if I were in kindergarten, saying that boys were “icky”.

So my parents think all my stress and anxiety is a result of the teen years, hormones, and whatever crap they get from their parenting books. But it’s actually from them not letting me be - I recently read a parenting book for fun, and even found a whole chapter on how parents should /never/ tease their daughters about relationships, or try to get too close to them. We are getting older and need our own space - it’s not a difficult concept to grasp.