“I think you should do it this way…” “No, not like that…”
“Oh my God, what are you doing?!”
Do these sentences remind you of something? Or even better, someone? They remind me of my parents or teachers. Or even every adult who is related to you and can talk about your work. Yes, the all-knowing adults, who guide us through our life, day after day..

Do you think they are doing the right thing?

Adults try to correct us everywhere. School, homework, housework, maybe even the courses we go to. I don’t like it when somebody talks about my work, even if there are some mistakes, for example, in art class. It is my original work, which means I like it with all the bad little stuff in there, and forcing me to take it out is almost as bad as forcing me to start all over again. Drawing is expressing my creativity, which means it’s SUPPOSED  to be that way, is what my friend would say after another art class lesson. But she isn’t writing this article, right? I am. I think it would be proper to introduce myself. My name is Niamh Octavia McCullough. Yes, weird¹ name, that’s why I go by the nickname “Ňuňu”. I am 15 years old, and I go to an elementary school. In these articles I will try to talk to you about things that may be close to you, or maybe even show you some things which you didn’t even know existed.

Article number one, Things that drive us crazy – GO!

Your parents are telling you they want the best for you. The teachers are just trying to help and guide you. And your trainers want you to be the best. That is all very nice, but sometimes they forget there are other adults who want to make you perfect. For example, my mother wants me to be the best in school, and I don’t want to disappoint her. My teachers want me to go to a lot of athletic competitions, and I don’t want to disappoint them either. And my dance class teacher wants me to be even better. My mother doesn’t like my dance teacher; my dance teacher doesn’t approve of² my school teachers; and my school teachers sometimes comment on my mother’s ways. It’s a cursed³ triangle, and I’m in the middle of it. All the meddling⁴ of the adults is bad. Sometimes, I think it’s best for all the adults who are guiding you to just sit down, talk about what they want to do for and with you, and try to reach some kind of compromise. But it’s not that easy. Also, the adults in your family are trying to protect you from all the bad stuff. I’m sure you’re quite familiar with the “Where are you going?” question and “When will you be back?” and also the very popular “Who are you going with?” It’s natural that your parents are concerned for⁵ you. Good parents should be. But I think it’s over the edge, when they still cut your bread so you won’t hurt yourself. It has borders, and they should not be crossed. Also, I think the best way for children to learn is from their own experiences. Alright, I’m not saying that parents should shove⁶ their child into the middle of the road just to teach it to look both ways, but the non-fatal things should be left alone. The blaming tone of “I told you so” is highly effective. Just the shame of doing such things forces the child to remember not to do it ever again. But as always, both extremes are really bad. Being over-protective is bad enough; ignoring your child is even worse. Not just because kids don’t know what to do, but the act of desperation to get the adult’s attention makes them do crazy stuff. Attention, even negative attention, is still attention and kids are glad to get it.

Activities:

1. Think of the times when your parents told you something
    you shouldn’t do, and you did it anyway. Was it good, or
    bad? How did it turn out? Talk about it in class.

2.Do you have some other opinion?

3.Are there other reasons why adults treat us like this?

What do you think?

ŇuŇu

VOCABULARY:
1/wi∂d/ zvláštny – zvláštní; 2uznávať, súhlasiť s – uznávat, souhlasit s; 3/k∂st/ prekliaty – prokletý, zatracený; 4pletenie sa, zasahovanie – pletení se, zasahování; 5mať záujem, starosť – mít zájem, starost; 6/šav/ strčiť – strčit