I grew up to respect all adults.

As to my parents the same run true from when I was a child right up to when they passed away some years ago. I loved & respected them both.

I bring children up by the same method, my own children and over 75 Foster Children that I have cared for over the years.

I was rude, disrespectful, rebellious, loud, ungrateful-a real beeyatch.
Now I’m still apologizing and smacking my forehead at what an idiot I was. As a parent, I don’t take as much crap from my kids as my parents did. I hope if I get them while they’re young, they’ll be better than I was when they become teens.

I was rebellious back then….haha notice I said back then. It seems times have changed, what kids are doing these days compared to what I did back then is nothing.

Now I am still my own unique individual and treat them pretty much the same.

My Parents and I have a good relationship and it amazes me everyday how well behaved I really was when I see what teens are up to these days. I think my Parents would agree…they didn’t have it too rough.

im a teen
i **** them

About the same. I definitely appreciate what they went through being parents of an older child so suddenly now, though. I was 11 when I went to live with them; my older daughters were 5 & 7.

But as far as how I treat them, largely the same. We’ve always been very close and are still. We see each other at least once a week and I talk to them on the phone daily, if not more than daily!

I guess because I never was around teenagers when I was one (all my friends were through sports and were way older and wiser), I never got the memo that teens are supposedly disrespectful, rebellious, difficult and a nightmare. I’ve always held my parents in the highest regard and respect, largely because they did the same for me. They always treated me not as a child, but as a small adult; they didn’t patronize me, dismiss me, try to “train” me, or treat me like an object or a pet. I think that made me respect them a lot more when I was younger, and it makes me respect them even more now as a mom of 3 myself.

My parents frequently mention that they wish they’d had longer with me as a teen, which is a total guilt trip now because I left home when I was 17. I thought at the time that all parents wanted teenagers out of the house ASAP, my parents specifically so that they could have their life back to what it was before I was around. And I think that kind of broke their hearts, which really stings now to think that I did that, albeit unknowingly. I don’t *regret* leaving, per se, because it allowed me to grow up and to be with my friends and learn how to be a woman (my parents are both men). But I do wish I hadn’t hurt them like that and that I could have stayed at home a little longer, since we had such a shortened time together already in comparison to most parents and children.

Because of them and the above experience, I treasure the time with my kids. I try to make as many happy memories with them as I can; try to make everything about our home life happy and filled with light and joy. Not so that they’ll stay with me longer than I stayed with my parents, but so that we’ll all look back on all this time when they are gone from home and say, “life was good and happy and fun.” It goes by so quickly… so many parents I know seem to dread time with their kids (particularly teenagers, many of whom I find delightful if you treat them right!) and brush their children off so often, and all I can think of is, “how sad for them that they don’t know what they’re missing out on.” I guess I treat time as a precious commodity because of my parents. That, and I learned from them how to treat children, I think.

My mother, who I lived with before my parents, I had - and still have even in her death - zero respect for. Basically from her, all I learned is what I don’t want to be - both as a human being and especially as a parent.