by Willie Parker

Created on: November 24, 2008

I can speak very well on this topic from personal experience. I have extremely over protective parents. And it was very hard for me growing up and going to high school because my father was actually my high school principle as well. I can remember when I was in middle school, I was not even allowed to say the word "fart" because in our house it was percieved to be a curse word. Can you believe that? THe word fart. A curse word? Wild. However, that was their rule and I chose to live by that rule, even though it caused me to get made fun of quite a bit in middle school. I still remember the kids laughing at me back in those days.

Needless to say, I was respectful of my parents but very afraid of them at a young age. They were very authoritative. It held me back when I was young from going out into the world and learning some things on my own. I lived a very very risk averse lifestyle, felt a lot of pressure, and was terrified of taking risks. This was really evident when I went to college. My first year was a bit of an eye opener. I was exposed to things that I had never seen or heard of. I thought a lot of the people around me were evil people, but still managed to maintain those friendships. I realized that most people are not as bad as their naysayers say and not as good as their praisers claim, but somewhere in between.

I have learned to overcome this close minded, "everything that's different is bad" mentality, and think more for myself and be more accepting of other people's actions. I have not been a wild person, and gone nuts since i have been out on my own. I am a very respectful and mature grown person, and have really come into my own. It has not been an always smooth process, but it has been a great learning experience.

I understand my parents concern to protect me from potential dangers, and they surely did that. However, I think they could have exposed me to more real life situations so that when I finally got out on my own, I would not have been so shocked by so many different things. However, that strong sense of what is right and wrong that they instilled in me helped me deal with many different kinds of peer pressure when I was in college. I was not nearly as tempted to do drugs, drink alcohol, and get into a lot of mischief that my other friends did. Overall, I think my parents intent was great, but they could have certainly let me out into the world to get some more real life experience.

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