“Dad are you kidding me? I deserve those Tory Burch flats, you owe me them. It’s unfair how little I get compared to all my friends.” This was the first line I heard come out of a girl standing in line in front of me at the cafeteria yesterday. She proceeded to complain to her father on the phone for about five minutes, arguing that she was “so unfortunate” to have to deal with a father who “doesn’t appreciate” her. She then threw in a few swear words, and hung up the phone. She was a stranger to me; yet, I despised her for what she represented—the stereotypical SMU girl. Here she stood, Louie Vuitton Bag slung on her shoulder, dangling her car’s Lexus key ring, accusing her father of making her life miserable. Poor thing.
What really is sad is that this girl’s demeanor towards her father is in no way atypical from many teens today. I tend to hear my friends speak towards their parents in a similar manner with no filter; my peers run their mouths to their parents, oftentimes even belittling their parents.
Whatever happened to respect thy elders? Parents used to demand that their children treat them with respect, something that occurred without question. However, in many families this trait has dissolved. Many kids have a relationship with their parents like the one they have with their peers, referring to their parents as “Donna” and “Mark,” rather than “Mom” and “Dad.” Many teens even swear in from of their parents without thinking twice about it.
This carelessness towards how many teens speak to their parents reflects a great lack of respect. Parents deserve to be shown this respect because they are responsible for providing their children with so much. What we need is a change in the way many view, and therefore speak, to their parents. According to P.M. Forni, an expert in civility at John Hopkins University, the return of respect and veneration for parents is vital for teens to form valuable relationships with their parents because in doing so, “The quality of [those] relationships will substantially increase and with it the overall quality of everyday life” (62-63).
I totally agree with you that we need to respect our parents more. They provide us with so much love and care and sacrifice a lot for us. The way young people treat their parents is quite different from the way it used to be. The respect for parents is declining that we sometimes speak to our parents like how we speak to our peers. It is a good thing that parents can share thoughts with us just like our friends do, but they are still our parents who need our respect. A healthy relationship with parents is also based on respect.
ReplyDeleteSome teens even tell their parents, “Stay out of my life" when in reality it is them who got into their parents' lives. I 100 percent agree that our parents deserve real truthful respect; not the: I respect you only when in front of you. Unfortunately even the second kind of respect is seen less every time. I have even witness small children hit their parents. While it is true that it’s the parents’ responsibility to educate their children and to teach them respect, as we grow we should also grow conscious of our errors and try to fix them, even if the error exist from our toddler years.
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