The dynamic between parents and their children has always been a delicate one. The best relationships are grounded in trust, mutual respect and acknowledge merit of each other’s ideas. This perfect dynamic hardly ever exists and family relationships can suffer if people aren’t treating each other justly.

With a glance at today’s culture, it doesn’t take long for one to notice how this flawed dynamic is prevalent in our society. Flip your TV over to TLC or any other reality TV channel, and there is a very reasonable chance you will see a flawed family dynamic in play, with children screaming at their parents, or vice versa. And while these shows certainly make for some intriguing television, they plague our society with broken portrayals of how a family should look.

Today’s youth, the primary consumers of the media described above, have carried the actions they have seen on TV in to real life by disrespecting their parents on a regular basis. And while teenagers deal with their adolescence rebelliously, that does not warrant the constant contempt parents have received over their children’s “rebellious period.” Many teens blame their parents for everyday problems, call them by their first name behind their back or mock them and their actions on social media. It’s just something that kids do so they can get a like, favorite or laugh and it’s absolutely unjustified. These are the people who give you everything and in return they are blatantly mocked.

It’s quite unfair actually, because parents are a really easy targets for kids. They too often become the scapegoat for problems that teens usually create themselves. When problems go wrong in their everyday life, they are quick to say: “My mom dropped me off late.” “I can’t come over because my dad grounded me for no reason.” Parents are never there to defend themselves, to explain that she offered to give you a ride earlier, but you wanted to watch TV instead. It’s simply easier for you to deflect blame onto them even though you had been grounded due to the fact you came home two and a half hours after your curfew.

I really believe in this generation. In the last issue of LION, it was addressed in the editorials that Millennials don’t deserve the bad reputation they get. I wholeheartedly believe that. This generation is hard working, active in their community and learning more in school than their predecessors ever did. But all of those things ironically contribute to the disrespect that the youth today are struggling with. Today teens feel pressure to do as much as they can. The pressure, created by parents, colleges and fellow students alike has led many to run from activity to activity and taking on more challenging coursework. A schedule like this can wear anyone thin. Too often, broken down from difficult daily activities, the people we see the most, our parents waiting at home suffer from our poor attitude. It’s a mistake many high school students make and I’m definitely part of the guilty party. It’s just the unfortunate circumstance of a generation feeling like they have to do more and more.

As much as I’ve addressed how the family dynamic can be flawed on the children’s side, many times it’s a two way street. Too often parents fail to accept when they are on the wrong side of the argument and will escalate the conflict to a point that no conversation between parent and child should reach. Huge fights can break out about someone not doing a chore or refusing to walk the dog. These fights are caused by rising tension and a lack of understanding between child and parent. Regardless of who is responsible for creating this tension, I feel that it is reaching dangerously high levels.

All these factors are tearing apart a relationship that is arguably one of the most important that many will have. It has to get better. Shelter, food and education are so embedded in our lives that it becomes easy to forget that our parents are the people who provide it for us. They give us every thing we need and while they don’t ask for much in return, the least we can give them is a little respect.