As a parent of three teenagers, I often console myself that yes, now I am the dumbass. So I dole out advice with the knowledge that it may or may not be followed, and that my teenagers will venture forth and make many of the same mistakes I did, that I could have avoided, and that they could avoid, if we'd just listened to our parents... but maybe the lessons wouldn't really have stuck if we had? Watching our cyclical nature play out is kind of fun once you surrender to it.