Teenagers are stupid

I often get asked for advice from students. I often offer advice to students when I can see a poor outcome to their decisions. They rarely listen, because they're teenagers. Inevitably, things go awry, often in the exact way that I said they would. And yet, the very next time it's "Yeah, but this is different".

I understand why parents of teenagers go mad. I had one today trying to convince me that she did respect her parents, even though she never seeks out their advice, tries to hide things from them that she thinks they wouldn't agree with, such as going to parties, refuses to listen to, let alone follow their advice, gets in yelling arguments when they tell her she isn't allowed to do things because of patterns of poor decision making, and basically is trying to eliminate them from her life as much as possible. I mean, obviously she's just a typical teenager, but that of course means that nothing in her behavior really indicates any respect for her parents at all and that might be a part of the reason they get upset with her.

Of course, teenagers don't really listen to me either. However, unlike their parents, I don't care nearly as much when they end up in a sewage pit of their own making. It doesn't stink up my house.