How You Can Earn More Freedom From Parents
Maame Ekua is devastated.
She just cannot stop her tears from falling. She is lying on her bed with a million and one questions going through her head. She has just had a heated argument with her parents and feels her parents don’t trust her enough.
Maame Ekua is sixteen years old. She and her friends planned a get-together at the poolside of a five-star hotel over the weekend and her parents had refused to let her go, with explanations she could not understand as usual. Now she feels like she’s a prisoner in her own home and thinks her parents would never make her venture out on her own.
Have you at any point felt like Maame Ekua? Have you ever felt that your parents don’t trust you enough to allow you to go out alone with your friends?
Well, don’t be too downhearted. There are ways you can earn more freedom and feel less restricted.
To get freedom, you have to gain your parents’ trust. See, trust is like money: very difficult to earn but very easy to lose it.
And sometimes, no matter how much you are given, it just doesn’t seem enough.
Trust is such a sensitive topic for many parents and youths.
Parents are required by the good book, the Bible, to train a child the way he/she should go.
This means that parents have the huge task of preparing their wards for adulthood – the time they will be well-equipped to leave home and possibly raise a family of their own.
The transition to adulthood is not like a door you just open and walk through. It is more like climbing a ladder. It has to be step by step.
Now that you understand the basics and know what responsibility your parents carry over you, how can you earn more freedom?
First, you need to prove yourself trustworthy.
I’m sure you are wondering how you can do that.
Well, you can prove yourself trustworthy by being truthful (telling the truth all the time even if it will get you in trouble), keeping to your promises, finishing or completing every task you start, showing respect to authority and being organised (keeping your surroundings tidy and personal items well packed and sorted) and taking good care of personal belongings.
Next, you must open up about your problems. We are all imperfect and make mistakes so opening up about your mistakes or problems will help your parents understand you better.
Also, it would help if you did not use your time of freedom to do what is generally seen as wrong.
Furthermore, you should learn to show appreciation. Saying ‘thank you’ is a daily etiquette and a simple courtesy that takes just a moment.
It actually costs nothing but it’s one of the most important ways in which we interact with others, both those closest to us and those we come into contact with for the briefest of times.
We say thank you for gifts, special favours, and assistance received in times of need. You don’t have to say it for only the big things.
We also say thank you as we’re handed our change in the store, to the person who holds the door for us, and to the person who passes us the salt at dinner. Saying thank you shows maturity.
Finally, you should learn to apologise for wrongdoing and make an effort not to repeat the wrongdoing. If you are found apologising for the same thing over and again. No one will take you seriously or trust you.
Now, if you put in all the efforts at earning trust but your parents still don’t give you the freedom you deserve, you should talk it over with them respectfully.
You may talk to an elderly friend of your parents about it if the problem persists.
Being trustworthy should not carry an agenda (doing it to get something). It should be apparent in your everyday life.
Earn freedom from home or anywhere else by proving you are trustworthy at all times.
NOTE
Unlimited freedom is not a sign of parental love but parental neglect.
