Family Matters.

Every day I wake up to my two younger brothers yelling, running around and playing the playstation. My parents are already at work, there's housework to be done and no one but me is going to do it. This is what the school holidays mean to me. Sometimes I go into work, only to discover that I, a fifteen year old girl (who is desperately awaiting her 16th birthday in November-- HELLO, Learner's permit!), am the most experienced waitress and have to fix all the problems that have arisen since I last worked, and train the new girl (who will turn out to be incompetent and barely able to speak english...). There is a point beyond me complaining to this, I swear. I'm getting to it, so please be patient with me.

Like any human being would, I wish to socialise with my friends over the school holidays. I personally believe that this is reasonable of me. My parents, due to the amount of work they have to do, cannot drive me places and as a result I am home-bound. I am not allowed to take public transport (and even if I was, there is no bus service near me). It is in my nature to be independant, and so I hate that I have to rely on my parents for transport. My main issue is, that while they expect me to be 'responsible' and maintain the house while they're at work, my parents are pretty damn strict. I am more or less a prisoner in my own home at the moment, not to be dramatic, of course. This brings me to the point of today's post...

PARENTING.

I am a member of generation-Y2 (the generation after the one that everyone is complaining about, and at the end of the day, Y2 is sadly similar to Y). Parents all raise their children differently. I am the eldest of three children, and my parents were pretty damn hard on me as a child. Because of this, I have become a respectful, dilligent, albeit deviant adolescent. My two younger brothers (the youngest in particular) are a different story. My own mother will admit to you that she was far stricter on me than she was my siblings, and that she still is. I personally believe that the disciplin with which I was raised is a good thing. I am generally well-behaved, respectful, hard-working and well mannered. That has in no way suppressed my personality. I'm still stubborn, argumentative, weird, and a little dark and deviant. I don't see the way I was raised as 'bad' in any way. In fact, I'm glad that my parents raised me the way they did... I just wish that they would allow me, as I am now, responsible, well behaved, to have a little more freedom. I am, as I have previously mentioned, a very independant person. I need space, I need isolation to an extent, and I need my freedom. I need to feel as if I am in control of my own life and my own actions, otherwise I start to feel out-of-control, suffocated, claustrophobic... this is just who I am. Now, my parents do not like the idea of giving me this freedom, not because they want to oppress me, but because they want me to be their 'little girl' forever, although they're already painfully aware of the fact that I'm already 'all grown up'. I may still have a few more years of adolescence ahead of me, but I've always been quite mature for my age (I say this not to be egotistical, but as a simple fact). My mother always said I was "3 going on 30". All I am asking, is why I cannot be allowed to grow up... I'm not the type of person who is going to get out, get drunk and get laid. I do not need alcohol to have a good time, I have enough silliness and random fun in me as it is (when I'm in my element). All I want to do is go spend time with my friends, go shopping with my best friend, see a movie with my boyfriend, go to get-togethers among my friends and I... it's all rather harmless. My idea of a party involves lollies, soft drink, table tennis, a swimming pool and my mates. I don't know what people find appealing about booze and bongs. My parents know this, so I fail to see why I am so trapped at home.

Sorry, in the end this did turn out to be a bitch session... I wasn't planning on it and I apologise.