But I grew up, and every day it’s like a realization of boyyyy, my parents loved me.
First off, it started with forcing us to sleep at noon each time we were back from school. I think that’s the most relatable one here. I just didn’t understand the point of forcing someone to sleep when they didn’t want to. It just happens that we had a lot of time on our hands then as kids. Now, as adults, I don’t miss a chance to sleep, wherever, as long as it’s convenient, because adulthood isn’t funny. You don’t even get enough time to breathe with all the many things to do, not to talk of finding time to sleep at noon.
We can agree that there’s always some kind of fun teens will love to have. Outings, parties and all. But the thing is, sometimes I didn’t even bother asking because I already knew I wouldn’t be allowed to go. It got to a point where my friends would no longer tell me there was going to be a party because of course, "we already know your parents won’t allow.”
I know I wasn’t such a party person, because they would let me go if it was a school party or if they knew the organisers were adults, but never if they knew it was a bunch of teens who planned it. It felt unfair, like I was missing out on something big. I’d always think, “What about the other kids? Don’t they have parents as well? Why is my own always different?”
But now I see they were really trying to protect me, not cage me. Parties happened. Messy situations happened too. People got hurt from fights, made bad decisions that lived on with them for the rest of their lives—and I was safe.
Also, my parents never let me do something just because other kids my age were doing it. You can never catch me on popular trending fashion, or trending behaviours. My parents would say, “Just because everyone is doing it doesn’t make it right.”
It taught me self-control and discipline. Even now, I don’t make decisions out of pressure or wanting to fit in with everyone else. I learned from that phase to always think through everything and not just be the one to follow the crowd, because chances are, it might not end well.
It wasn’t easy growing up. Our brains were still underdeveloped. We practically saw everything from a fish eye. And following that kind of distorted view might get us in danger, and our parents knew that. They protected us from all of it.
We saw it as pain and punishment, but they knew what they were doing. At least I know better now. And I’ll be forever grateful to them for putting me on that path where I don’t ruin my life with my own hands.
