A lil' old rant of my own (sorta)

[Chaos_Phoenix]

First, I know that this kind of thread has been posted over and over, I just wanted my OWN ^_^

Now, to get started, let me tell what I'm ranting about. My friend's parents are the most overprotective, overconcerning, and overobsessing parents I have ever had the pleasure(?) of meeting. He's almost 16, and has a curfew of 8:00 PM. Not bad enough, you say? His parents, because he sent a total of 5 emails to a girl, deleted all of his contacts to her, and disallowed him from ever seeing her again. (NOTE: she's coming for Christmas, and he can't see her.) It's getting worse, isn't it? They basically, now, monitor his e-mail 24/7, ensuring that their son has NO life. Luckily, he can find some relief at school, but when he's home, he is under constant parental watch. HE'S 16, LAY OFF!!! Sorry, got off there for a second. Just the fact that they did that, would be considered an invasion of privacy under any other circimstance, so why is it not in this case? Why do parents feel that they have the utmost control over their children. There is a fine line between good parenting and bad parenting. Now, some have different definitions for what is good and/or bad, but this is just rediculous! A parent(s) should not have such control over their teenager. We have a right to freedom, so why can this pour soul not feel or express this freedom? Is this an infrigement of the Unspoken Oath? If you have anything like this, please let me know. I need closure that this isn't the only person who suffers from OPP (Over-Protective Parents).

[Mixfortune]

5 emails to a girl... that's all they're worried about?
Maybe they have some premonition that emails = porn or something, I don't know, but something tells me there might be something more to it than that.
Of course, I'm no parent... but, without getting too deep into the issue, what kind of emails were these?

[anwserman]

Have him talk to a guidiance counselor at school (always worked for me), or possibly talking to a friend's parents. That is way too harsh, but then again we also don't know how he is (grades wise), if he has been in trouble before, so I really don't want to side with him if I don't know the details.

But talking with an outside adult typically helps.

[Kasumi19]

There may be an actual reason for them being so overprotective and we may not know the entire story. Sometimes parents are overprotective of the younger child in the family after having a very ebellious older child. I had a friend whose mother was so overprotective that she actually attempted to enforce an 8:00 PM bedtime for her until she was 17, would not let her watch the news because it was a "bad influence", and wanted to screen any movies with a PG-13 or greater rating before she was allowed to watch them.

My friend rebelled the at the first opportunity when she turned 18 and made so many bad decisions because of it and your friend may do a similiar thing when the opportunity presents itself.

My friend finally grew out of her bad phase though.

[polishedweasel]

Eww. My parents were'nt too bad on tme when I was growing up. Actually, I was allowed to do pretty muh whatever I wasnted after the age of 15. Only problem was, I always had some stringent curfew to obey. No big thogh, the minute I graduated I was out till 4, 5, 6, 11 AM the next day. My parents never said anything about it either. But, meh, one day they'll lay off. Or, he'll just commit suicide. http://www.pso-world.com/psoworld/images/phpbb/icons/smiles/anime1.gif

[Chaos_Phoenix]

First, the emails were nothing more than: 'Hi, how are you?' Second, his grades are straight A's. If he gets any worse, his parents would ground him. Lastly, he is the oldest child of 4, so it couldn't be bad experiences... Personally, I think that they tried out all their parenting skills on him, and just never adjusted them...