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November 19, 2003

Perspective

A very perceptive cookie over at Heimishtown thought it important to comment on my blog. "...a partial response to Shlomo, who is a little fixated on the kids at the fringe issue." The gist of her post, if I read it correctly, is that I see things only from a teenagers’ perspective; she's trying to open my eyes, and yours, to the parents’ point of view. I get her point and I agree with her that parents put a lot of work into every child. I agree that parents experience pain when their children veer off the right path. But I won't stop writing from the teenagers’ point of view. I don't claim to be the maven in childrearing either, I am just trying to get the teenagers point of view across. I am trying to make people aware of what's going on in the teenager's mind. A parent, even when s/he means the best for the child, still needs to know the child's point of view. Teenagers today are going through their hard teenage years in a completely different climate than their parents did.
Can any parent really understand their teenage child? I guess teenagers need to consider their parents' feelings and parents need to consider their teenagers feelings.
However, in general, I believe that most teenagers on the fringe did not end up there because of the parents. But it's the parents that can do a lot to help them back, with the right approach. Whoever said that the hard parts of parenting are over when s/he stops listening to you?
I can't say I will talk about kids on the fringe when I have a teenage daughter of my own, I don't think it's really possible for a parent to fully understand their teenager. They can try, ask advice and do their best, but a 40-year-old cannot understand a 16-year-old.

"...a little perspective" is definitely a "very good thing"

Posted by notepad at November 19, 2003 10:38 AM

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