Okay, first temptation is to tell you women are not that hard to understand... then I think back to my ex-husband and even after I told him point blank what I wanted he didn't get it, still doesn't... which has me thinking that I will never understand men. (I would share those words of wisdom with you men but there is a small portion of it that may not be fit for all ages)
I do find it interesting that the topic of gaming and obesity have come up in this thread along with parenting... eerily ironic may be a better term than interesting now that I think about it.
My marraige failed due to gaming, only so much being ignored to the point of standing beside someone yelling their name without getting a response that a girl can take before she moves on. Of course he did this before we were married too so I probably should have seen it comming sooner. Oddly enough it wasn't the gamer that gained the weight. That was me. Depression combined with what has recently been diagnosed as PCOS have certainly packed on the pounds in the years since my daughter was born, along with a myriad of other health complications, some are treatable, others never will be. All of this has resulted in the mother of all wake-up calls for me... Congrats Ram on your goal to better health, I wish you every success. I have my own very similar goals though mine out of neccesity will take longer.
As for the parenting issue, that also has been a topic on my mind very frequently recently, with my daughter spending the next 4 months in Florida with her father and his insistance on including his grilfriend in everything they do after giving me reason after reason that he assumed would set my mind at ease but instead drove home the point that this woman, who has a child of her own, is no mother, rather she is a woman who happened to bear a child. But that is another rant that really has no place here... and would probably take more room than these forums have available.
Even at age 4 my daughter, though stubborn and opinionated beyond even what I am capable of, knows that she has every right to voice her opinions and express her beliefs, she also knows that no matter what she has to say, I will listen and take her postion into account. On the other hand she also understands that there are times when Mommy is not to be questioned, even if her first instinct is to rebel and make me prove my point. Not because I don't love her, or trust her, or respect her, rather simply because I am her parent. I am older, I have had alot more exerience with life as a whole and because as I have told her many times already, I was a child once too.
The obvious exceptions of previously mentioned bad parents (not everyone is or is capable of being a good parent) aside; If there is one peice of advice I can give to the teens that have been reading and arguing in this thread it is this:
You're parents were someones child once too, and if you believe it or not they do remember what that was like, they also understand in ways that you can't possibly yet understand the reasons why parents do what parents do. There is nothing that you can do that your parents haven't done already, no way you can "rebel", "stand up for yourself", "demand respect" or in some of the cases I have seen mentioned here "prove that you are smarter than they are" that they haven't already tired themselves. You are not breaking new ground, you are not teaching them a lesson, and my sincerest wish is that some day you grow up to have children of your own who are exactly like you... just like your parents did... because until you do, you will never understand.
In the mean time they do what they do and have their reasons for doing them because they are your parents, unjust in your opinion or not, it is that way, simply because they said so. If you want them to treat you like an adult act like one. They owe you no explaination, and until you realize and accept that, all you are doing is proving that you are no where near as "grown up" and "adult" as you like to think you are.
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