A rebel from the waist down

We're sell-outs. We'll rebel our whole lives as teenagers, constantly defying the authority telling us not to do... whatever it is that we want to do that parents and teachers don't want us to do.

Then we become adults and turn into the same people we were rebelling against. Our parents smoked pot in high school and got pissed when their parents told them not to do it... but then do the same to us when we try it out.

This isn't even a call for parents to stop telling their kids what to do. If your 14-year old daughter is out having sex or doing drugs, you're a horrible parent if you just let it go. When someone isn't nearly mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions (pregnancy, disease, death), they don't have the right to make their own decisions. That's why parents exist.

But when you get to that 17, 18, and even 19 age, and you have the unfortunate decision of being mature and smart enough to make your own decisions, but still having to live at home with your parents who don't realize that you're mature enough, you have every reason to put your foot down.

And of course you will, because you've been doing it since you were 13. The only difference is that now you're actually right, when before you just thought you were right.

But then you get older, you have kids, and you become the same thing you've been rebelling against. We get all fired up when we finally get out of the house and get to make our own decisions, but then we turn right around and lock our children up until the day they do the same to us.

Get smarter.