As we got older, I suppose we all heard the phrase “ parents are your best friends”.

How much do you believe in it? Are you one of those who wished it was true or one of those who get to live up to these words? I have been a part of this society for twenty-one years. A community where we are discouraged from sharing our knowledge and opinions with our guardians based on age. And If you do, it will be considered disrespectful to your elders, and you end up being the one at fault only for sharing your views.

It might not be the same for all families, but the majority remains unchanged. I am a part of a society where you cannot speak out your opinions and emotions liberally to your elders; it takes a great deal of courage to say a single word to your parents. I may not have faced the worst of it, but there are people I know personally who have encountered much more of it.

My grandparents are the first generation of my family, followed by the second generation, of which my parents are a part. I am now a member of the third generation. It is very upsetting that the second generation got modernised with gadgets and technology, but their mentality remains the same as that of the first generation.

Let’s get down to what is unfair in this society; when you bring up a topic with your parents or seniors after they have given their opinion- that is the only thing which ends up being heard and believed even though they may be wrong. There is no shame in being wrong. There’s always room for learning, and one should always be open to correction and knowledge to flourish. But in our case, if you want to correct them respectfully, they will not agree and will conclude to verbally abusing you. With the good old tricks of gaslight and guilt tripping you, the usual conclusion is you do not know how to behave with those that are more mature. And when you want to keep your cool after all of that so that you can avoid any other fights, another problem arises as they will now assume you as a person full of ego who is not willing to be friendly with their elders.

We also have to face some other elders in the family who will say,

“Look at your parents; they work hard and earn for you and buy you everything; why are you being so ungrateful,”.

However, the main point is money can never buy you mental peace and a loving family.

This writing may offend many people, but this is the reality that you need to accept; everyone has emotions. Children often bottle up their feelings, dreams and frustrations as it is now permanently fixed in their minds that this will cause an outburst; because of that fear, children cannot be their authentic selves around their parents or have their own opinion and fresh perspectives.

When you speak of your thoughts with your parents, they take it in the wrong direction without trying to understand you just because it is wrong in their eyes.

As a result of such mental teenagers end up taking paths to drugs, and usually, when their parents find out, they tend to blame their friend circles. Teenagers indeed get addicted to drugs and surround themselves with people with similar feelings and situations. Some people will take advantage of the circumstances. It becomes easy to manipulate teenagers to sell them drugs.

Even then, parents will not simply accept the fact that they are the first ones that make it possible for the destruction of their child's life.

There is a quote by the great Rabindranath Tagore,

“Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time,”.

I know children are not always right; no one is, but rather than using harsh words and making things complicated for both parent and child, they should talk politely and discuss and should give the platform to each other to speak equally. There is no harm in sharing each other’s thoughts and knowledge. If these things do not stop, the whole of humanity will suffer this never-ending loop of mental pressure; someone has to break this generational trauma to heal and create a healed society.

Family problems like such lead to severe forms of trauma and depression in each human creating and passing on more and more trauma to future generations. And we must also remember that “hurt people hurt people”, which means we must heal ourselves to create a better future for the upcoming generations and break this pattern of generational trauma. Such mental issues are the reason why we get driven away from all positive thoughts leading to the creation of suicidal tendencies.

This is a humble request to all parents; please give us a stage to speak out. Bottling up one’s emotions has never led to anything good.

Just because one has lived on this earth longer than the other, it does in any way just that they are always right, so this goes out to all our parents, and seniors figures STOP USING THE POWER OF BEING OLDER TO TAKE THINGS UNDER YOUR CONTROL.