Things to Never Say to… a Teenager

Yup. We’re weird and often glued to our devices. We’re crazy, drive our parents crazy, drive crazy period, and think we’re cool because we take pictures of ourselves and post them all over the web (Selfie, weeee). We hype about random things, we like sleeping in, we claim we’re “weird” when…. everyone else is saying it too.

Oh yeah. And most of us can find something funny in Teenager Posts.

But hey, most of us are humans, too, and there are just some things that we don’t need to hear. If you don’t want a teen rebellion going on, here are some things you shouldn’t say to us.

1. “You act like you think you know everything.” Haha, it’s funny that you say that right after I flunked that one exam…. but no. Or actually… yes. Because based off my prodigious accumulation of life experience, I’d like to say that maybe the age of teendom is one of the most emotionally difficult phases of life. Everyone’s changing to be more adult-like; there are more expectations; you’re realizing your actions have a higher probability of greatly affecting the future; and hormones are really, really raging (though what we did to anger them in the first place, I have yet to find out). But you know, maybe we like to act as if we know everything because we’re so uncertain of it and of ourselves. This is the time when we make major decisions that determine who we’ll be, where we’ll go, what we will do. We pretend to know everything because we’re just beginning to realize how we really know nothing.
2. “Why do you sleep in so late??” I’m glad you asked, because now I get to bore you to death with this thing called a circadian rhythm. These things are driven by your biological clock that tells you when to eat, sleep, etc. based off the time of day, and actually, during adolescence, your circadian rhythm shifts to be later. In other words, it’s pretty normal for most teenagers to find it hard to fall asleep before 11 PM, possibly because their bodies naturally produce melatonin (a sleep hormone) later than before. On top of this circadian rhythm shifting, most of us actually need 8-10 hours of sleep, and most of us just aren’t getting it. So next time you want to complain about me sleeping in late, just talk to my circadian rhythm, and maybe we can sort something out.
3. “What do you want to do after high school?” Oh, you know, probably find a place to live, maybe continue my education, find a job… oh, and marriage? I was thinking I’d probably meet my future spouse at some kind of summer retreat, all romantic-like and stuff. Then after I get my master’s degree in Computer Science at Stanford, I can move to Ireland and start my family there, have four kids, and live a long, happy, prosperous life. What are your exact plans and hopes for the future? I’m glad you think I’ve got it all figured out, because that means my confident front is working. But… um, do you really want to ask about all that when it’s probably going to change as I go along?
4. “You’re so lazy.” Yup, just say that to the kids working to sort out their future and fry their brains while trying to survive and have a social life on top of that. I mean, yeah, we can really be lazy, and yeah, I know I just asked you to hand me my notebook when it’s two meters away from me; but for goodness’s sake, my arms are short, and you’re closer!
5. “Stop goofing off, and go work on your homework.” Mom, I swear, I actually was just working on it an instant ago, and you seriously happened to come in right when I was taking a short break .-. Parents really have the best timing, don’t they??

 

So, teenagers, here are some things to pass on to the adults around you, and adults, here are some things to take note of. (Don’t tell me you don’t remember your teen days. Pity us.)