halrunkel
I can remember the first time an adult helped make sense of my maddening experience of being a teenager. It was a school counselor who simply asked me what it was like being on stage all the time. Now, I was never involved in drama or theatre, so I asked her for clarification.
“Don’t you sometimes feel as if everything about you, from each individual hair to the way you walk, is onstage for all the world to see?”
“That is exactly the way I feel.”
“And everyone’s ready, at a moment’s notice, to criticize everything about your appearance, your words, your choices?”
“How’d you know?”
“That’s the way every teenager feels.”
She was right, and now — more than 25 years later — with everyone holding a mass social media organization in their pockets — teens feel even more onstage. We parents would do well to remember that. This is why teens have so much anxiety about clothes and acne and who they’re seen with!
This should also be why parents should refrain from adorning all of our walls, background screens, and Facebook pages with nothing but images of our kids. Home should be at least one place where our teens can simply be — without having to always be on display.
“Adolescence is just one big walking pimple.” (Carol Burnett)
Peace begins with a pause,
Hal
