QUESTION:

My parents are good people but they always are complaining that all I think about is having a good time. I am a boy 15 years old, and it seems to me that I should be permitted to go out nights and have fun with the kids. My parents keep telling me that when they were my age, they were more serious about life and were not always looking for fun. What must I do about this?

ANSWER:

I am glad you began your note with the acknowledgment that your parents are “good people.” Perhaps your question is partly answered right there. I grant you that parents can be good people and still be a bit unreasonable with their teen-age children. Yet, I believe that good people generally can be counted upon to look out for the good of others, especially their own family.

Apparently, your parents came up the “hard way,” as the parents of so many of us did. They did not have the advantages, privileges and possessions so many of our children today have. They had to get along with a lot less than you do. It is possible they can­ not completely adjust themselves to the teen-ager’s world of today.

Of course you may have fun! But let your parents see in you also a willingness to keep a balance in your life. The problem with many young people and their parents today is not so much one regarding pleasure as it is one regarding proportion. The pleasures you and your friends seek may not be wrong. More likely, it is the proportion of time you give to these pleasures that is wrong. Why don’t you remain home with your Dad and Mom a little more than you do? Enjoy them while you can. You aren’t always going to have them.