“Hey, guess what I heard? I heard that the administrator of this blog holds her children hostage and forces upon them roasted worms and crunchy beetles to consume if their blog articles are not completed on time to be posted. What a woman! I am 19% sure this information is accurate for I heard it from my friend’s uncle’s step-brother’s boss’ secretary’s nephew’s day care teacher’s niece. Pass it on because I believe everyone in the world should know about it even though it sounds completely bogus and false.” This is what an average kid jacked up on truth serum would say to you if he had heard that very silly piece of gossip.

I for one know it is not true because the blog administrator, who happens to be my mom, does not in fact hold my sister and me captive and feeds us insects for not finishing our blog articles on time. That’s preposterous! She instead lectures us on and on and on about the importance of finishing our work on time, comparing us to journalists working for newspapers saying we should work promptly and diligently, then she grounds us for unreasonable amounts of time, the minimum never short of a month, and finally, she tells our principal about what wayward children we are, asking for the best of punishments upon her infamous off springs.

Now, back on topic, you will often see or, more often, hear youngsters gossiping left and right about the silliest of things that, at their age, seems pretty darn serious to them. There are various topics of gossip such as what that girl is wearing, what that boy did at basketball practice, what that couple were doing at the party. Alas, there is one subject of gossip that everyone is a part of no matter how well mannered you think you are; the temptation to let your raging feelings be known massively surpasses any conscious and self-control you have. You will often hear us youngsters talking trash about, yes; you guessed it, our parents’ generation.

Adults tend to get on our nerves quite easily, leading to us then retaliating with rumours, lies, and flat out stupid statements about them. I am not going to lie, I hear a lot of garbage being said about adults I know, most of it based around the teachers in our schools. Yes, students are going to have problems with their teachers time in and out, and when these seldom rare rumours about the teachers go out, you definitely expect them. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE in my grade has said one thing or another about our teachers in a negative light even if they just did it because others were. Technically, even if you say something as small as “I do not like this certain teacher because of blah blah blah”, it is still gossip. I myself am guilty for ranting about certain teachers teaching methods and their logic in various situations. For example, I dislike it when a teacher does not clearly right down the homework on the board or when a teacher punishes the whole class for one student’s insolence. (Of course, I sometimes end up being that one student because of my big mouth!)

Yes, we youngsters do have our fair share of chitchatting about our teachers since and it is practically simple seeing as how we are with them 7 hours a day, 10 months a year. However, who do we see more often than any teachers we will ever know? Who finds their soul duty throughout their existence to pester us day and night whenever we are abode? Who is right now hovering over me as I type this sentence, critiquing my every move, obviously disappointed in the son I have become? Folks, it is our parents (or in my case, my mother) and, believe it or not, we youngsters converse among ourselves about you twice as much as we gossip about anyone else.

I know that parents are always concerned for their children and their wellbeing, we all know so. Alas, when you they try to take care of their off spring, they can often go way overboard. Way overboard. For instance, my parents are fretful about how I am brought up. They do not want me to end up a juvenile delinquent or worse so they pressure me in ways you can only imagine I will rat about. They limit my electronic usage considerably, now to the point where I can hardly use them on weekends unless for serious homework, and even then they find some homework less essential than others. They pick on my every wrong doing, calling me out and going on long rants about how stupid I supposedly acted, they look for things to report to my principal who knows I am an angel, something my parents do not even consider to be true one bit. They will even tell me to stop reading a certain book if it is not “mature” enough for my level of understanding.

With all this juicy information on my parents’ parenting styles, it is hard not to tell others about them. I usually confide in my sister, advising her on how to survive in this house, and we frequently exchange war stories about diverse battles we have faced against our captors. Then, when there is something just to humorous to contain, I blurt out my encounters with my bossy-like parents to my classmates, now and then ending in them pitying me, more often than not ending with them laughing at my pitiful life! Of course, I find it fun to engage in conversation about my parents with others. My classmates and I often ponder how each other survives in their hostile home environments because of the gruesome horror tales we reveal to each other. At times, I will even make a big joke about my parents in front of my teachers which often even gets them laughing and joking about them too!

In the end, all parents know their children talk about them with others, I know they, more often than not, will hear the many curses we throw inadvertently towards them in our temper tantrums, but they know we still love them even in our times of vehemence. As my mother always says, “I do not care if you hate me or say bad things about me behind my back. I love you and I am just doing my job by taking care of you the way a parent is supposed to.” This applies to all adults too. They know you say things behind their backs, and they do not care. (Oh, is it a shocker to you, fellow readers? Everything you have ever said about your teachers has been heard!) They are all just trying to do their jobs as our adults. Rant all day about how you do not like that teacher’s hair or your parent’s methods. You never know, today’s adults probably gossip as much as we youngsters do! But that’s for another article.

Angelous