those darn kids

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/21988356/

So there’s this lady, Judge Glenda Hatchett says she knows troubled teens. She does this whole “intervention” thing and she thinks she is the end-all be-all of trouble youth. Yeah? Not so much. She can identify them very well, no doubt about that, but part of growing up is being a troubled teen. If I may copy and paste,

Signs Your Teen May Be In Trouble
0. Abandoned Friends For New Questionable Peers
0. Sudden Drop In School Performance
0. Has Extreme Mood Swings
0. Lies About Whereabouts
Has Mysterious Financial Changes

I don’t know if it’s just me, but this all seems ridiculously obvious. I think she’s not really making the clear separation between “troubled teens” and “future convicts.” These four reasons are good signs that you need to start paying more attention to your kids.

Just from personal experience, counseling does help to an extent, but only in certain situations. When I was 3 my parents got divorced and I had 6 months of court ordered counseling. After that my mom and dad decided to keep it up until I was about 13. When I was 13, I finally met a guy that for once helped me. He was different because all we did was play darts. While we played, he would talk and I would immediately just play off that and we would talk. It was random things, and it was great.

Kids my age are hard to deal with from an adult perspective. Teenagers are almost a foreign body to parents, but still something recognizable. First, it’s because parents care about their kids. On top of that, I’m sure parents remember being teenagers many moons ago. Articles like this are only a cause for discomfort for parents. When they see that their kid is missing or is in one place they shouldn’t be, the parents are automatically going to turn to this and assume something is severely wrong with the kid.

Things like this affect me as a teenager. My parents would look at me different if they read this. They would re-think letting me do whatever I do. At my mom’s house, I just say “I’m going to Adam’s house, ill be back tomorrow.” At my dad’s house, it is slightly more protected. He wants to know who are there, what’s going on, and all that. I think it’s annoying, but it’s his style of parenting. I’m sure he’s read a few articles like this and assumes I drink all the time and smoke a lot.

As a side note, midterms are in 3 weeks and there is this peculiar thing that the school can dictate which teachers give midterms. I realize we go to a private school, but I feel like this is something to be left to the teachers. I mean Rabbinics? Really? I am personally ok with a Rabbinics midterm, but I also apparently need one in astronomy. On top of that, the best class of all, legal issues, must have a midterm. I think this rule is ridiculous and the teachers should be allowed to decide if their class should have one.

Peace and love,
Mayer