What’s something you wish your parents/guardians said or understood when you were a teenager?

10 comments

1. “I’m proud of you.”

2. I guess I wish that they were better with money and gave better financial advice. Had to teach myself and lost a solid decade of my life undoing their guidance.

3. I have needs. Thats why I installed two locks on my door.

   Then dad removed my entire door. Bruh.

4. Boomers…you know the rest

5. Knock before opening your teenage son’s door to his room to avoid an embarrassing situation for both of you.

6. I don’t remember if it was my dad or my uncle who told me explicitly not to talk to doctors or therapists about problems unless they’re impacting productivity because real men work through their problems by themselves through work, but I guess I wish they would have told me to talk to the therapist I was seeing about suicidal depression instead of sitting on it because it was probably a phase (it wasn’t a phase, and if you ignore mental health problems they often get way worse instead of better).

7. I was extremely depressed and I was confronted on cutting my arms, they thought tough love was the way to go but crushed my soul with the choice of words they used.

8. Here’s a free piece of advice:

   When your kid is graduating high school after almost offing himself, maybe don’t make “why didn’t you do better” the first thing you say when you see them. Especially independently of each other.

9. I wish they just understood how emotional I was. Stop trying to combat it or control it. Instead be more loving and kind and help me bounce back

10. My mother always said “these are the best years of your life.”

    Spoiler alert: they were not.

    I wish just once someone had told me “it gets better” when I was a teen. A little optimism can go a long way.