This I Believe

I love my parents but sometimes atrocious tensions and disagreements occur. They say these incidents happen all out of love and care but to me, I think they are either loving way too much to where they become over protective, or they are just being ridiculous because they did not get to experience some of the things I do when they were younger.

I come from a family involving an older brother, two older sisters, and a younger brother. Every one of us is treated a bit differently because of our gender, age difference and just who we are. I find this very unfair. As a sixteen year old, I would appreciate being respected and trusted amongst my parents with the feeling of easiness when I go out somewhere. I do like to be cared about and know that my parents worry for me if something was to ever happen but I would also like for them to not worry so much because their worry makes me uneasy the rest of the time I am out.

My dad tells me every now and then, that I worry him the most in the family, that I give him a feeling of unhappiness when I want to go out to have fun hanging with my friends. He is afraid I will meet a guy and not be able to control my thoughts and emotions for him. He claims that I am still too young to have a boyfriend, that I do not know what its like to handle such situations and doubts my actions. I repeat to my dad multiple times that he should trust me on what I choose to do with my life. Even though he acknowledges my request for him to trust me and says he trusts me, I believe that he does not. In my mind, he says what he says to let me hear what I want to hear, but I know what he really thinks about my opinions, he dislikes them.

When my older brother was a teenager, I recall him introducing his girlfriend to our parents and they were pretty calm about it. (My mom is normally pretty cool about everything; it’s just my dad who has the evil eye and is the main individual we all have to seek approval from.) For me, when I didn’t have a boyfriend yet, my dad would constantly nag to me every chance he gets about not wanting me to have a boyfriend until I am out of school period. He believes that being involved with another would just cause dilemma and interfere with my education at this age. What’s so unfair is that he allowed my older brother to have a girlfriend at my very age but not me, all because he’s a guy and I am a girl. Even then, he agrees to let my brother be exposed to the outside world more often than I get to.

Being treated unlike the others is so unfair especially when your treatment is not as high-quality as theirs. I believe in equality because that way, there won’t be as many disagreements because everyone was treated equally.