Kasey Ellsworth
January 7, 2014
Period 3
American Literature

Classification of Parenting Our parents are the most important people in our lives growing up, they shape us into what we hope to become in the future. The way they chose to parent us develops each of our own unique attitudes towards life. For some of us our parents are going to be the pat on the back, and the reassurance that we can do it, and for other they will be the nightmare that haunts us every day for the rest of our lives. We all know about the parents who are over protective of their children, the ones who tend to be cool and treat their child as if they’re older than what they really are, the parents who use outdated methods to discipline us, and the parents who for some reason think that we were sent here from heaven above to accomplish all the things they never could as a teenager. I bet that right now reading this, you now know exactly what type of people your parents are, let’s just hope growing up you don’t end up like them when becoming a parent.
“You’re not going to that party, there’s going to be drinking”, “I don’t like Suzanne, she’s a bad influence on you”, “I’d really prefer that you didn’t date until you were out of high school”. How many of us can say that we’ve heard our mother or father say these things to us? They seem to think that they are somehow protecting us from the world, when really they are sheltering us from mankind and the socialization we need to develop into intelligent young adults. If we aren’t ever allowed to venture out how will we ever be able to understand means of communication? Sure mom and dad, keep us cooped up in an empty house all to yourself, but don’t be surprised if we sneak out occasionally and disobey you, because at the end of the day we deserve to be kids, don’t forget that you were once 16 yourself.
“Sure honey, you can go to Colin’s house just call when you get there”, “What are you doing tonight, why not invite some friends over for a little party I will order pizza” “You can use my car to go to the football game just be home by 11:30 and call if it will be any later”. If you have parents like this, you better just go ahead and consider yourself lucky, because not very many of us are as fortunate as to have parents that are so trusting. Fortunately for them, by letting us as teenagers merely young adults in the making, do what we want and allowing us to go out and enjoy ourselves they never have to worry about where we are, and what we are doing because their generosity makes us want to respect all that they do for us. The least we can do is call, and check in every couple hours, what kind of parents would they be if they didn’t worry a little? I mean come on, they have to wonder sometimes.
“When I was a boy my mother used to paddle my behind” “Don’t talk back to me, my father used to make me drink hot sauce every time I would interrupt him” “This here is called timeout, this is the exact same chair I sat in when I wanted to act up”. Some parents just don’t get it; we don’t care how they were treated as kids or how they were punished. It is a constant conversation amongst friends to hear about punishment with the removal of cellphones or loss of television and computer privileges. While others, who I feel seriously sorry for have parents who want to raise them the way they were brought up. They still think we are living in the 1980’s and that we deserve to sit in a wooden chair until our buttocks hurt and we fall asleep from staring at the crack in the corner of the room. Real trouble is up ahead when ma or pa break out that old family paddle, passed down from Dad’s mom, from her mom and so on. Punishment? More like jail time in a household like