Whether you have had strict parents, lenient parents, or something more in-between, rebelling sometimes comes with the territory of being a teenager. Rebelling against your parents, regardless if it was getting your ears pierced or sneaking out of the house, is something we were quite familiar with growing up.
When I was 14, I thought to myself, you know what would really p*** off my parents? Getting a tattoo. So a fellow friend and I search our town for a tattoo artist. Eventually, we found one (he was a tad sketchy, but it was good enough for us) and we fed him a story about how I lost my ID while celebrating my recent 18th birthday and to our surprise, he believed it. To be fair, it was on my hip so it took awhile for my parents to discover it, but when they did… it was not a fun time.
I dated questionable guys
My mom was the type of mom who wanted to be cool but made it blatantly obvious when I did something she did not like, even when she tried hiding it. This meant there was always an exciting reaction to see when I would bring a guy home. When I was in high school, I loved all boys. I loved dark and emo boys. I loved the long-haired stoners. I loved smart, nerdy guys (but I would never bring them home, I was a “bad kid” and bad kids didn’t date smart guys…) I loved obnoxious athletes. My personal favorite, however, and her least favorite, were the big, dangerous looking gangsters. To my defense, I went to a pretty good school so no one was really that bad, but she still hated them. But the look of her face, when a boy with baggy jeans, a chain around his neck and terrible grammar walked in, would just make my day.
I stole the things that I got taken away
Lucky for me my parents were not big on grounding. Because I was involved in school, it was kind of hard to force me to come home straight after school when I had sports, student council, and other extracurricular activities. So, instead, they decided to take my things. They took small things like my phone and iPod (back when phones didn’t hold music…) to huge things like my door and TV. Although I could not just steal another door, I was able to steal other things. I would steal my parent’s phones, iPods and computers. I had a pretty serious boyfriend at that time (a solid 2 months) and I just needed a way to communicate him so… sorry, not sorry? Overall, it just got me in more trouble but it was all worth it if that meant I got to talk to Niko so…
I lied about EVERYTHING
Everyone says honesty is the best policy but that never seemed to be the case with my parents. Often it was easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission. One year I got grounded for a whole summer for getting a C in gym class (I am not athletic leave me alone). Somehow after that, I convinced my parents that my school stopped doing report cards because they didn’t believe a grade defined the student. This worked for two years, so was I really in the wrong?
I got piercings (questionable and not)
Growing up, my parents always told me you can do whatever you want when you turn 18. So when I turned 18, I got a bunch of piercings and they hated most of them. The first couple of piercings that I got were my ears, which my parents were completely fine with. The week before college, I was doing some hard thinking about my next piercing (this took 5 minutes). I told my mother I was going to get a nose piercing. She obviously said no you’re not. I grabbed the keys to my car and took off to the nearest piercing shop and got my nose pierced for $15.