I remember that when I was in my teens,I used to refuse to obey many of the "dos" and "donts" my parents dictated to me. For example,when I kept on playing jazz records on the stereo,my father would condemn such music as sheer noise and replaced them with disks of classical music that I always considered extremely dull. When I insisted that I sleep with my pet dog,they immediately said,"No way," because they thought I would be bitten by fleas. These were just a few examples of the things I thought my parents were unreasonable about.
Today,however,I am a father of a boy aged 15,and I find that I too,am pressuring my son with a lot of rules and regulations hard for him to "swallow". Its not unmon to hear my yelling at him,"What do you mean by fooling around all night without reviewing your lessons?" or "How e you did it? You are still wet behind the ears." The other day,I noticed that my son wore giant pants that three teen-agers could occupy. No one would wear them on the grounds that they were indecent and undignified. I at once manded him to take them off. Usually,he is fairly obedient,but this time he put his foot down. "Whats wrong with giant pants? All my classmates wear them,and I dont think you have the authority to order me to remove them,even though you are my father!" said he. When I was a boy,if I had spoken with such rudeness to my elders,I would have been given a good beating. But I suddenly realized that we are now living in a more liberal society,and that my sons insistence on wearing g
iant pants was merely an instance of the generation gap that existed between us. Therefore,I gave in and now he still wears giant pants.