When You Are Oppressed, Or Ten Weighty Reasons for Teenagers and Their Parents

[Feanor of the Peredhil]

Fea ... perhaps that guy met my friend lol......

To coin chat-speech... RotFLMAO. Tyler (the guy) certainly didn't meet me, since I've been to one party where there was drinking, and I left just before the drinking started, but just after ripping a guy to shreds when he said something offensive to me. He hasn't talked to me in a year. And I KNOW Tyler wasn't at that party.

his mom was yelling at him to be more like me

I've had that happen. Have you ever noticed that, regardless of what the situations are, you tend to get compared to people around you? I loved this conversation:

D: But everyone does it. You don't know how to have fun. You should be more like A.
Fea: Not everyone, and my fun is different than yours.
D: You don't, but that's about it.
Fea: You're forgetting E, K, K, S, J, K, A, J, and K. None of us do.
D: I don't know any of them.
Fea: I expect I could fill several books with what you don't know.
D: Huh?

My parents' latest comparison: You should be more like S... when's she's not at work, she's out with friends, not online. My response tends to be: I have a job, when I'm not at work, I'm out with friends, and I'm only online when I've got nothing better to do. *sigh* Parents...

Fea

[Saraphim]

my fun is different than yours

That is what I've been trying to explain to people! But they don't seem to understand why I turn down a party to read Russian literature and discuss LotR on the internet with people I've never met.

My mum, nervous as she is about my proclivity for the internet, she would prefer this to the drugs/alchohol/insessant partying/ect that most of my peers take part in.

For my part, I just find that the Downs is so much more fun and fulfilling than a group of loud, inebriated individuals listening to bad music.

[Mithalwen]

My mother used to despair of my untidiness, asking why I couldn't be more like her sisters step daughters ..... years later I was able to ask whether she had wanted me to be more like the suicidally depressed one or the imprisoned junkie one.....

Not that I would encourage anyone to start worshipping at the altar of Bacchus and certainly not to excess .... but I do wonder what on earth Hookbill was drinking..........

[Lalwendë]

I'm sure others will agree with me - all the 'cool kids' (by cool, this means partying, drinking, etc) you knew at school are now the ones who seem to be messed up! While all the slightly strange kids, the geeks and the bookworms, they have all done well.

Parents though, they'll still be worrying about you when you're in your thirties, mark my words! And they still maither* you. Mine still ask me where my coat is if I turn up without one, and clean my house when they visit...

Anyway, I think Hookbill had been drinking Pernod. Ugh. *Shudder*

*Maither - means nag, basically.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Anyway, I think Hookbill had been drinking Pernod. Ugh. *Shudder*

What Mackes you skay that? (falls over)

[the phantom]

My mom is a BIG nagger. She worries about everything. It gets annoying sometimes, but I know she loves me. My dad doesn't really nag, but he's always big on giving warnings on things involving finance, work, and school. You know, kind of pointing out no-nos ahead of time.

I joined the Downs as a teen. I was almost 20, but still, I was a teen, still in school, and living at home- well within my mother and father's nagging jurisdiction, yet I did not receive a single warning or nag about the Downs (except those concerning the percentage of my day I spent on the site, which at times was substantial).

My parents figured that I wasn't stupid and that I could take care of myself. If I would've joined the site and immediately started handing out my full name, SSN, credit card #, and address then something bad might've happened but my parents knew I wouldn't do that (and if I did do it, they would tell me "tough luck, it's your own fault and you know it").

Unless you make bad decisions The Barrow-Downs is very safe. In fact, it's probably safer than going to a mall. You could get into a wreck on the way to the mall. You could get robbed, raped, or abducted in the parking lot. Also, I've been a cashier in the past and if someone came through my line with a store specific credit card I knew a couple ways to really mess their finances up if I wanted to (but don't worry, I doubt the other cashiers ever could think of the method let alone pull it off).

Plus, you'd think a site dedicated to quality literature would have an extremely low number of stalkers when compared to chat rooms, gaming forums, and other places on the web.

When it comes to the amount of time spent on the Downs, obviously work and school should not be kicked to the curb to make room, but if all tasks have been completed and it is time for recreation then why not spend a large amount of time on the Downs? It can be quite beneficial for reasons listed above in other posts. It's certainly better than lots of the things I see kids doing for fun.

Anyway, my parents were always happy to see me doing things in my free time that required thinking and reading. Nobody has anything against those two things, right?

(ironically, after saying school should come first- this post took longer than I thought so I'm late for class now)

[InklingElf]

I totally concur with your points H-I!

As I've observed from my stay here at the Downs my literary criticism here and at school has much improved. Of course my many thanks go to the elder members of this forum mainly because they have shown great confidence in the points they make in certain posts, backed up by plausible information etc. etc. Don't worry I won't make the sob-story out of this post

A week or two ago I reviewed my very first ramblings on the Downs...much like looking back on a journal so you can imagine how embarrased I am with reactions like "Did I write that!?" and so forth...but as it progressed I found my more recent postings more purposeful and found myself delving more into more serious posts...and leaving doggy ears in me dictionary (heh).

I am sorry for the kids that were banned from the Downs--no one can argue a parent's perrogative but I believe this rich community may contribute in many ways to education mainly in Tolkienology....er English Literature.

I remain a faithful member of the Downs. Though it is a slightly goofy at times its academia-like atmosphere remains a small but imperative part of my interests and schooling....I WILL bookmark that list H-I

[Mithalwen]

I don't mind the occasional pastis (memories of very hot evenings at french terrace bars) but it should be mixed with a lot of water and sipped slowly.... The teenage tendency to mix it with Blackcurrant cordial and slug it tends to lead to "talking to God on the great white telephone" (and ruins the palate)...
so a very bad idea ...