Teenagers have their say
"Parents of teenagers often feel that their children are disrespectful and have no regard for culture, but this is not true."
Despite the fact that a large number of crimes are committed by youngsters in Tembisa, not every youngster is the same.
Some youngsters in Tembisa sit and deliberate on the possible causes of moral degeneration in society.
One such youngster has contributed an opinion piece to The Tembisan, titled ‘Walk in our shoes for a day’:
“More often than not parents do different things that may unknowingly upset their children.
Teenagers are the most misunderstood group of people in various instances. Teenagers suffer this misjudgement because they are at a stage in their lives where they have to carefully transition from childhood to adulthood.
As to how they get out of the situation, it cannot be told.
Parents tend to have difficulties in adjusting their way of parenting to the current way of life and cannot accept that their children are their own person.
They shy away from the current ways of raising children and label it “too westernized”.
Perhaps it is, or it may not be, the case at all.
Many parents see their children as a “second chance” through which they can correct their own past mistakes.
It is a prevalent and factual case that many parents do not have healthy relationships with their children and it is usually towards the point of destruction that they get to truly understand their beloved children.
Parents of teenagers often feel that their children are disrespectful and have no regard for culture, but this is not true.
Teenagers have difficulty in adjusting to their newly-found personalities and characters. Therefore, when this takes a toll on them, parents quickly judge.
Teenagers have a lot to deal with.
It is not easy to grow up having to be an example to your siblings at all times, or having to be compared to and expected to keep up with your well-educated/successful brother or sister.
It is equally not easy to live in a day and age where nyaope is at teenagers’ disposal, let alone the scourge of sugar daddies and sugar mamas that are all around us.
Teenagers struggle to deal with these social problems and cannot even talk about them because they will be named “rebellious”.
It is therefore sad to learn that many parents are not making an effort to understand what their teenage children are going through.
I reckon parents need to understand that times have changed and that experiences or the era they grew up in is different to what teenagers are going through now.
Technology has advanced and so has everything else. Parents need to develop a communicative relationship with their teenagers so that we as teenagers do not lose our culture and heritage.
This will ensure that the right knowledge is imparted to young future leaders.
Teenagers are naïve individuals, they need patience and guidance. They don’t need to have their lives lived by their parents.
As teenagers we need care, support, guidance and not constant judgement and/or complete bashing.
Teenagers are important members of our society because they symbolise the nation’s rite of passage, from the old to the new.
Are parents going to wait until their children flee home before they, as parents, can surrender their ranks as adults and come down to their teenage children’s level and start walking in our shoes for a day?”
