Rebeca Castro, #6. 14-04-2020.

write a paragraph on different topics that the parents and their kids mentioned.
Explain different perspectives they have. Give your opinion and examples from
your life.

The first prompt they gave the participants was: The older you are, the more you
know

Teenagers said they agreed with it, but their parents didn’t agree with the prompt.
Parents came to the conclusion that it isn’t like that at all, the older they get, the
more they realize they know nothing.

Personal opinion: I think it is partially true. The older you are the more you know
seems like a true statement for me, but I also agree with the parents, because as
you get older, you start to realize that the quantity of things that you don’t know is
far bigger than the things you do know. I like to see it as exponential growth, you
learn 2 things but then you realize you don’t know 4 other things. Don’t quote me
on that, I know very little about math. I’ve recently come to the conclusion that all of
the adults in my life are just winging it, they know nothing about what they’re doing,
and they just work because that’s what people do. I mean, my sister, who is almost
34 years old JUST learned how to do taxes and why they’re important! This type of
situations kind of give me hope, because I know I’m not as lost as I think I am in
this world.

Second prompt: Teens today are less innocent

Two teens and a father agreed with the prompt, and said while they do think teens
today are less innocent, they also think it’s not their fault. There’s just way too
much information going around and about on the internet. And that makes
teenagers open their eyes to the realities of life at an earlier age. Disagreers then
stepped forward and said that they think teens are actually more innocent now
because of all the tools parents are given from the very beginning technologically
speaking, they can just see where you are, who you are with and if you’re telling
the truth. In their golden days, they could get away with so many things because
there weren’t any electronic devices to keep track of them.
Personal opinion: I totally agree with this prompt. Today’s teens are waaay less
innocent than they were before. I mean even when I was 7 or 10 years old I was
finding out about things I definitely shouldn’t have found out at that early of an age.
I know things and I have seen things my parents definitely have never seen or
heard of in their lives, just because I have infinite access to the internet. Some of
them I wish I haven’t known about or haven’t seen them, but at this point it is what
it is. And I can only imagine what life will be like from now on, because as we get
older there will be new technological innovations and kinds will just have more and
more things to learn on the internet without any kind of restriction.

Third prompt: There are things that the other side doesn’t know about me.

Everyone agreed with this prompt, and one teenager started out saying that her
mom doesn’t know that she’s always judging herself because of what she sees in
social media. Then parents and children started to share the things that they didn’t
know about each other.

Personal opinion: I also agree with this one. There’s things my parents definitely
don’t know about me and I really don’t want them finding out for one reason or the
other. Maybe I don’t want to talk about my day with them, my sexuality, what I do
with my friends on my spare time, my tastes, my beliefs, my political views and
how I am inside. Those are all things I can’t really talk about with my parents, they
always judge me and are overall really mean when I speak my mind just because
they don’t agree with me. I am always hiding my feelings and masking to
overcompensate, but that is just a personal experience, it doesn’t mean it is the
same for everyone. Maybe for other people it’s just a simple thing like, “Oh, my
mom doesn’t know I stole a cookie from her last week!”, and that is totally fine,
because everyone has different experiences with their parents.

Fourth prompt: I wish I had more control over the direction of my life.

Just one teen and her dad stepped forward and agreed with the prompt. He said
that he’d like to have control over his own life, but that he gave up that freedom
when he decided to have children. It’s not like he doesn’t love them, but he admits
that there’s more to life than just having kids. He wants more control over what’s
going to make him feel happier and fulfilled. She says she wishes she knew more
about singing, music and makeup.
Personal opinion: I agree with this prompt too, specially being an immigrant.
There´s things I don’t have access to, such as scholarships and jobs, just because
I wasn’t born here. And that really limits my opportunities in life. That´s something I
wish I had more control over because that will determine how my life will be from
that point on.

Fifth prompt: I wish my relationship with the other side was better.

Two parents and two teens agreed with this one. And they said there’s always
room for improvement. They looked back at things they have done to their children
during their early years as a parent and said they would have done some things
differently. A girl and her mom agreed that while their relationship isn´t perfect, they
wouldn’t change anything about it because they don’t feel the need to.

Personal opinion: I would really like to improve my relationship with my parents,

and I’m doing everything in my power to do so. But there´s some things they have
to work through by themselves to really be able to open up to someone else before
we take any steps further.