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Parents Of Teens

Barabara Ellen takes exception with non-parents and parents of young children who take it upon themselves to advice POTs (Parents Of Teenagers) on the errors of their parenting ways - which is quite understandable.

However, she neglects to mention another kind of POT - the ones who have very good natured and well-behaved teens - the kinds that score straight As, go to church regularly, are engaged in a plethora of activities and have a clear plan for their future. In other words, the complete antithesis of kids who host and attend the wild Facebook parties Ellen writes about.
It is typical of the other POTs to tell such parents that their kids are over-compensating for some hidden (and obviously dreadful) issues by being so abnormally perfect. The fact they don't drip attitude like a "normal" teen is enough evidence of something being very wrong. They try to imply that unbeknownst to them, these clueless parents are harboring a severely disturbed kid who could snap suddenly and do terrible things - it is a ticking timebomb.

The best-case scenario, the all-knowing parent of a totally unmanageable teen says, may be that this "normal" kid has been programmed out of spirit, spunk and personality by control freak parents and would sink without a trace in the real world. The implication is somehow that the wild Facebook party crowd would get their act together auto-magically and become the Masters of the Universe when the time comes to conquer the world. Too bad the two sets of POTs rarely get to compare notes when their kids are in their 20s and 30s to see how everyone fared.
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