Redditors aged 15-20, what's it like being you? What are your impressions of other eras and generations? What do you wish us oldies had done differently? And are you aware that choker necklaces are not a new thing?

Recently turned 17 year old here. You've covered a lot of good points especially with the parents and grandparents part.

My parents grew up in South-East Europe so I was raised the typical "old" way. The man do the work, the woman stay at home., walked 2 hours through the snow without shoes to get to school way.

My dad has 9 siblings and so does my mum. Both of them grew up in houses which were less than 40m*m until a few of the older siblings were also able to work and thus gain more money for the family. My father has told me many stories about his childhood and how he had to work the whole day and skip on meals, because there was simply none. Oh and he also had to leave his country while he was doing his studies, because of war and now has built up a family with a little bit of money, basically turned his life around.

Now he raised me by a lot of principles he was taught which may seem controversial, but I think are good. I learnt by getting "beaten" and other consequences like getting my stuff getting away. There was never a time in my life I did something like sneak out at night from home to go and party or be disrespectful. Hell the first time he caught me playing video games at night I almost shit my pants. I can already see my little brothers being raised a bit differently, they don't have that much respect and don't do as they are told. Now you might think "omg you totally can't force children to do things!!1!", but if you learn from young on to do as you are told you will live a better life as I am gonna cover in my points below.

Meanwhile I see all these too nice families raising their children thinking that these little shits would never do bad things and then get surprised when they find out that their 14 year old daughter got passout drunk at a 18+ party. Parents like that trust their children too much without having made sure that their children are actually gonna do what they expect them to do. I mean do you really think 15 year olds are gonna choose right decisions?

Another thing I have realised when staying in America for two weeks was how much teens talk back to their parents. I couldn't believe it at first when I saw it. If I would talk back to my dad he'd straight up beat me teethless.

Now onto the positves: I grow up to be very competitive. From the point on when I started thinking on my own and living my own life I've tried to become the best I can and work the hardest I can. I am doing extremely well at school while holding mathematic tournaments all over the country as well as working in my free time.

I actually had quite a few discussions with friends about our raisings. Almost all of them are OK with getting C's and D's and are only working towards getting through the year which I cannot understand. They don't give 100%. They do the bare minimum. You get the chance to learn a lot and achieve pretty much everything and yet you don't take it? My father had to work as a child for the whole day and they couldn't even afford the bare minimum. And you are tired of doing your <one hour homework? Disgusting. ta qifsha at nan This is what motivates me to get far in life.

TLDR: You get to learn not to do stupid shit like you learn not to touch a hot stove. If it's only hot 50% of the time you're gonna try it again, because there might still be a chance that you'll end up okay. That's why parents like this have to be strict. This also doesn't work if your parents are idiots, because then you'll also grow up to be stupid.

Sorry if this doesn't make a lot of sense had to write this in 5 minutes, because I have to leave know, but I guess you can fill in the gaps I made. If not feel free to ask any questions.

/r/AskReddit Thread Parent