Unit 5302
I think you're confusing considered opinions with attacks.
DemonGT made a statement basically stating that parents should let teenagers do as they please and he added that he told his parents 'What's Up' when he was 15, and so they allowed him to live as he pleased since then and everyone gets along fine.
Correct me if I'm wrong here.
I don't speak for others but my general response to the post was that this was absurd and that as a 20-year-old, he has little conception of what adult life is like, as he's never lived by himself, much less had to parent and support a child. I also condemned the general attitude of teenagers who reject reasonable parental guidance, dis parents and 'put off' an education in favor of cars and/or whatever else seems more important but don't accept any real responsibility, except to complain. I pointed out that this 'screw you' MTV-gangsta attitude has negative consequences in the real, adult world where lots of people will tell you what to do, like it or not.
I know 20-year-olds who are getting an education, have some goals for the near-future, work part-time, have a decent car and do their share of parties and dating but they don't believe parents are too controlling or that a 15-year-old knows what's best for his/her life. They respect parents. They too would disagree with DemonGT.
What Demon GT did was arouse a lot of negative feedback with his rather skewed views of parental responsibility and teen 'independence'. I note that a lot of the negative remarks come from folks who have been there/done that and know that he's wrong, from their own experience.
I'm sure on another forum somewhere he might have received a ton of positive replies, telling him he was 100% right and what a cool guy he is for not letting any adult 'run' his life. That didn't happen here. Surprise!
It depends on perspective, as always.
Of course a 19 or 20 year-old living with his parents his whole life can't really comprehend the difficulties in just supporting yourself, getting the things you want, dealing with bosses, bills etc, then being married and fathering a child, totally dependent on you. That is what I stated in my last reply (to gt lee). It isn't a personal attack, it's just factual.
Many of us (myself included) lived with our parents, were party animals and/or spent most of our money on our cars. That isn't the problem, Unit. It's when that teen or early 20-something person states how parents should supervise their children and expresses irresponsible opinions that then generates negative feedback from people a bit older and more experienced who disagree.
I don't believe anyone wishes to 'attack' DemonGT.
He has a right to his opinions and I stated early on that he's free to do as he pleases (as we all are) and that his relationship with his parents is not my personal concern; I'm speaking generally here, as I clearly stated.
I share the concern for his immediate future that anyone who sees a friend or aquaintance going the wrong direction and attempts to suggest another track, as it were. We don't know each other personally but our members do want the best for each other and when we see a negative trend, we try to at least have enough sense to say it's wrong. DemonGT is free to ignore all of this, as he well might.
Unfortunately, Demon GT's attitude is quite common within the high-school/college-age crowd. It concerns a lot of us who know it's not a healthy trend to dis parents and reject 'authority' while carrying an 'attitude' into adult life.
People who are worried about it responded to his post. They didn't attack him, but questioned his general concept of teen-parental relations.
It's been a good discussion.
DemonGT is free to respond to any member or post, publically or with a PM. He'll be heard. Personal attacks won't be tolerated but opinions that are relevant, will be.
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