How Could I Hate My Teenage Daughter

If you've ever seen the show, 'I Hate My Teenage Daughter,' you know it pretty much lives up to its title. The problem is that its filled with distasteful presuppositions that allude to mother daughter relationships being, well, hateful. The parents are all divorced, the teen children are completely disrespectful, and the parents appease the teens as though they're afraid of losing their children's 'friendship' for lack of better words. Relationships are challenging enough without the complications that come from shows such as 'I Hate My Teenage Daughter.' I'd just hate to imagine the impact that the show could have on impressionable young girls. This is far from what we should cultivate in our homes by any means.

And since when are we supposed to be friends with our children? We are first to train our children in the fear and admonition of the Lord. Training them in such a way yields children that we can one day befriend in their maturity. However, we cannot be expect to be friends with our children when they are still relying on us to train them to become the mature individuals they need to be as adults. Trying to mix a friendship and a parent/child relationship can easily result in very confused children who have trouble understanding when (and what) things are appropriate. It can explode in our faces as it may breed a lack of respect for authority.

I must say that I appreciate my teenage daughters. They have taken the best care of me since my c-section nearly three weeks ago. Between doing all the laundry, managing the cleaning, prepping meals, helping with the little ones and serving me hand and foot, they have been a true blessing. I have to include my almost teen son as well. They've all been so awesome. How could I possibly hate such precious blessings? Sure there are times when they make me want to scream but hate them? I appreciate them and I thank God he blessed me with them.

One day my relationship with my teenage daughters will change. They will become adults and will no longer need me to train them in diligence. Although I'm not rushing time, when it does come, our parent/child relationship will have the opportunity to blossom into an adult, mother/daughter, friendship but for now, I must be a parent to my children and train them to be what God says they should be.

I sure wish there could be more shows that reflect respectful, kind, and helpful children. Maybe it would encourage more children to view parental respect as more of the norm and not something out of the ordinary or dreadful. Maybe it would also discourage the disrespectful, abominable behavior such as what is portrayed in 'I Hate My Teenage Daughter.' Maybe it would (even slightly) impact the view of dysfunction and parental disrespect as the status quo for the parent/child relationship.