Page 13 - Perfect Parents, Perfect Children, and Other Fairy Tales

they are saying. It means responding appropriately.
It means caring and being concerned for their

welfare.

It doesn’t mean that we always agree with their

viewpoint.

Children want us to think like they do. Parents can’t

always do that. As parents, we like to be friends
with our children, but that doesn’t mean being a
teen right along with them. We, as parents, need to

maintain our position, even as we are on good
terms with our children.

We also know more. We were teens longer than our
teens have been teens, and we might have a little

more wisdom that comes with age and experience.

Children will also complain that the parents don’t

care about them, but that their friends do, so they
talk to their friends more than their parents. They
will even be so bold as to announce that their

friends treat them well, but their family doesn’t, so
there is no point in even trying to be nice to parents

and siblings any more.

If it weren’t so annoying, I would take that as a

compliment. Consider this: if these teens, or
children of any age, treated their friends like they
treat their family, they would not have any friends.

They feel safe being rude at home because they
know that their family will always love them. No

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