Awkward

I was browsing through free tv shows in Itunes when I first saw “Awkward” a tv series about a teenager’s struggle as a “nobody” in high school, I couldn’t say outcast since she has friends although not the popular ones.
I found it very funny and entertaining at first and I could imagine how teenagers might be loving it but as I watch more episodes, I realized how I wouldn’t let my daughter watch this show before she is 25 or probably 30 years old.

It was still a culture shock for me, although I already know how American teenagers lose their virginity before they even go to college. Maybe because how the characters see sex as not a serious thing, that you can just go in an abandoned area (they call it sanctuary) in your school and freely have sex or make out. I have never been to the U.S. so I wouldn’t know how far or close the show is from the truth. It’s disturbing for me how parents would actually drive their teenagers to their party knowing there would be booze or ask her daughter if she already had sex with her boyfriend.

I personally know someone, a mother who allows her sons to do things freely (smoke, drink, go out late at night and all other things teenagers are so tempted to do) right before her eyes. She tells me because she wants them to be independent and think for themselves. She doesn’t want them to rebel against her and do things against her knowledge. For some teenagers, this would be a good strategy, that when they feel the independence that they are trusted by their parents, they would value that trust and will not do anything that will harm them or their future. But not all teenagers are the same, some would take advantage of that independence and would throw caution to the wind. Sadly though, the sons of this mother that I know fall to the second kind and it breaks my heart to see her sons destroy their lives and inevitably drags their mother’s life to their mess. When I try to talk some sense to her children, they (yes, including the mother) would turn the tables on me and point out how I made mistakes during my teenage years. Like common teenagers, I also made poor judgments but as I have also told them, I learn from those mistakes and take everything as a challenge or motivation for me to do things right and succeed. And by then, I have become the melodramatic meddler in their eyes (sometimes also laughed at). So I already gave up and see it as a lost cause and no longer try to somehow help them by giving my unsolicited advice.
My kids are just 4 and 6 years old, too early to know in what kind they would fall to, the ones can be trusted with independence or the other that is a disaster waiting to happen. I am not praying for perfect kids, just for the ones who may or may not make mistakes and if they do make mistakes, they learn from those mistakes and make themselves better each time.

image from mtv.tv