“You never understand me.” “Why now?” “Do I have to go with you?” ”What’s wrong with this?”
Does this sound familiar to any of you? These are the rhetorical outbursts I get as reactions from my teenage daughter. Bringing her up has been a great joy, and very honestly, very enlightening. I know exactly what music rocks, what cuts look cool, which guys are ‘yuk’ and which are “ooh”. I know also that skirt lengths are a matter of choice, and not an imposition, and that answering parents is not the same as answering back.
But I also know that this generation has had it tough – they have missed out on cycling to school, grazing knees climbing trees, lying on the grass doing nothing, failing a subject without much ado being made of it, and spending summer holidays oblivious of all responsibilities. And I know that child is the father of man.
May it always be so.
This is a thank you to all our children without whom we would have aged and seen the world only through the eyes of the old, before ever getting a look at the young. (Billy Joel: Innocent man)
Does this sound familiar to any of you? These are the rhetorical outbursts I get as reactions from my teenage daughter. Bringing her up has been a great joy, and very honestly, very enlightening. I know exactly what music rocks, what cuts look cool, which guys are ‘yuk’ and which are “ooh”. I know also that skirt lengths are a matter of choice, and not an imposition, and that answering parents is not the same as answering back.
But I also know that this generation has had it tough – they have missed out on cycling to school, grazing knees climbing trees, lying on the grass doing nothing, failing a subject without much ado being made of it, and spending summer holidays oblivious of all responsibilities. And I know that child is the father of man.
May it always be so.
This is a thank you to all our children without whom we would have aged and seen the world only through the eyes of the old, before ever getting a look at the young. (Billy Joel: Innocent man)
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