After attending the Chase Rice concert last week, I had many of his songs stuck in my head the next morning. Along with the great songs, I also heard the sneers and remarks that were made by many of the other attendees of the concert. After hearing many comments about how “you shouldn’t be out on a school night” and being talked to like I was a five years old, I began to question the role teens are called to play in the world.

I believe that when any person is called upon to live to a certain standard of maturity, they also deserve to receive the same rights and privileges as any older generation has. Teens are expected to live a life almost and exhausting as an adult. Kids go to school full time, participate in sports, perhaps have a faith life, volunteer, and are a part of clubs, all while trying to juggle a social life. Meanwhile, society looks back on teens as only an immature crowd of people who have not yet lived an adequate amount of years to deserve any of the luxuries granted to the elders by society as a whole.   

I believe changing this starts with parents. Parents must raise their children with good morals and respect. However, when their child has reached the stage of “teen,” they must begin to let their child explore the world around them. Parents must trust in their teenager that they will make wise decisions in accordance with the lessons they have learned from their parents. Rather than never letting them be able to prove that they can and will do the right thing, parents must allow their child to experience the real world.

The purpose of parents in a teen’s life is to support them and help them when the teen finds themselves in a matter of distress or tension after exploring the world, rather than restricting them to never really experience and learn what the real world is like. Through possible failure, a parent can allow for their teen to better learn what to do next time.

If a teen is being treated as an “adult” by the parent, then society then must accept the next generation of leaders as well. We must be willing to include the younger generation, to learn that they are more than what their reputation of being irresponsible, careless people.