At the age of 13, I felt it was up to me to decide whether I wanted to go to church or be with my mates, and I chose to go to church.
A mother can legitimately be said to 'have a baby' - but in a civilization such as ours, she can never claim to own a teenager.
. . . if we have children. When they are just born we do everything for them. We are omnipotent, they are completely dependent on us, but then when they grow up you must take back your influence on them, to give them freedom.
Teenagers are free verse walking around on two legs.
I was emancipated at 15. I went to school and had a full-time job and apartment, and ever since, I've been on my own, parenting myself.
In my opinion, you don't get to have privacy when you're only 16!
Teenagers crave independence. The more self-suf-ficient we make them feel, the less hostile they are toward us.
It never occurs to you when you are very young to need something other than what your parents have to offer you.
The only thing I said to my parents when I was a teenager was Hang up, I got it!
Children need to grow up and make their own decisions - how they want to pierce their bodies or do whatever they need to.
I was a very independent teenager.
A lot of teenagers, when they're in the business, they want to rebel, because they've been so tied up and stuff. I'm not too tied up. I like to have fun. I just don't see myself getting out of control.
If someone has a boy who gets to age 18 without something [a bone] being fractured, that kid has been overly controlled.
I wanted to be on my own and get out of the house. We were the kind of kids that - we - obeyed our parents. If they said no, you don't ask why.
At 14 I had no choice but to live with my brother, on our own, without adults, with all the responsibilities, decisions and day-to-day practicalities of living independently. I had, though, the joy of earning my own money.
If you, as a parent, raise your children well, they won't need you anymore. If you did it properly, they go away.
Negotiating the adolescent stage is neither quick nor easy. . . . I have often said to parents, "If it isn't illegal, immoral, orfattening, give it your blessing." We do much better . . . if we find and support all the places we can appropriately say yes, and say only the no's that really matter.
A wise parent humors the desire for independent action, so as to become the friend and advisor when his absolute rule shall cease.
I think teenagers bring a lot of intellectual sophistication. They're wrestling with big questions. It's just that, a lot of times they do that separately from adults.
You get into your teens, now they can't hold you back. You jump to the next number, or even a few ahead.
Youth doesn't take advice.
There are great parents of small children - they keep their little hair in bows - but those parents are not always good parents of young adults. As soon as their children get up to some size, it's "Shut up, sit down, you talk too much, keep your distance, I'll send you to Europe!" My mom was a terrible parent of small children but a great parent of young adults. She'd talk to me as if I had some sense.
Teenagers are people too!
Adolescent girls were fighting a mother's interference because they wanted her to acknowledge their independence. Whatever resentment they had was not towards a mother's excessive concern, or even excessive control, but towards her inability to see, and appreciate, their maturing identity.
To this day, we get letters at Alternative Tentacles from young teenagers who hide their Dead Kennedys albums behind their mirror or in the mattress of their bed. Wouldn't it be better if the parents just discussed this with the kids instead of creating this culture of sneaking and dishonesty within the family? The moral of the story being, you don't hide reality from your kids because then they grow up to be smarter, more aware adults.
