Listen, I love my parents more than the next person, but sometimes these things can be a pain in my butt. Trust me my parents are well aware of all of these annoying traits, but nothing will stop them from ‘caring.’ They call it caring I call it annoying. I know they do it out of love, but is it possible to have too much ‘love.’ I still push through all of this at age 20, and I will still have to deal with it even when I am a parent.
1. Be home by 10 p.m.
If I was lucky, I'd hear 10 p.m. “Come home before the sun goes down and the street lights come on.” Everyone has that one friend whose parents don’t care what time they come home, yeah not me. I was (and still am) jealous of the people who have parents like that. That walk of shame after every event, because you were always the first kid to leave. They always give the crazy curfews that they know you won’t be able to make and god-forbid you are 10 minutes late...
2. Where are you? What are you doing?
Okay, I think a lot of parents do this one, they’ll send one text. Oh? You didn’t reply within 30 seconds? You’re always on that phone when they are trying to talk to you (supposedly), but when they text you, you can’t reply?
3. Teaching new friends.
You know in middle school, how every weekend was the time to sleep over at friend’s house’s, pull all-nighters, and sleep in until noon? Yeah, that was a hard one. There was only one friend’s house I could sleep over at because my parents knew her parents and had all the contact information possible. People still don’t believe me when I tell them I have to be home at 10, so I need to constantly explain the problem.
4. The interrogation of every friend.
What’s their name? What’s their address? Social Security number? What do their parents do? What are their grades? Having to deal with all of the questions that follow, you might as well have a checklist ready with all of your answers written down.
5. They know your every move.
Oh, they didn’t check find my friends? Check again. You see that tracker under your car hood? Yeah, they didn’t think you would. My parents don’t go to the full extreme, but they do follow number 6 pretty well.
6. They need to know every detail possible about everything possible.
What’s the address of your friend’s house you’re going to? How are you getting there? How long is it supposed to take so I can expect a text from you? What’s their parent's name, and contact information? What time will you be home? Let me spare you some time, these questions are memorized, and have formed an instinct of doing all of these unnoticeably.
7. Spontaneous late-night plans… ha. Don’t even bother asking.
Want to go grab ice-cream with a friend at 10 pm, don’t ask. You must ask at least a few days before the event, because what does the word spontaneous even mean? After begging and pleading they’ll probably still say no. So why bother asking, start binge-watching PBS because you don’t even have cable TV.
8. The clothes you wear.
Before walking out of the house, you have to get your outfit checked, shorts below the knee only, and if you show your shoulders, you might as well go back upstairs and change. Going to the beach or the pool, you better wear an oversized shirt over your bathing suit, because showing that much skin is awful.
9. When one parent says no, secretly go ask the other.
This one goes without explaining – everyone does or has done this. When one parent says no, go to the next one in hopes that they say yes, and convince the other. Shout out to the mothers that are constantly convincing the fathers to let their kid go out.
10. Don’t ever admit that you’re bored.
You’re bored? Not possible. You have homework, laundry, chores, a dog to walk, and give a bath too, studying 10 chapters ahead, memorizing every word in the dictionary? Do you want me to keep going?
11. The love.
Although overprotective parents can be annoying or frustrating, they are doing it out of love. I don't really see it quite yet, but I know eventually I will understand that they do everything with the kindness of their heart. I love them so much, and even though I don't agree with some of their rules, I wouldn't change it for the world.
