On Friday, I posted a list of the top 10 things parents of teens need to know according to Madisyn Grills-Fisher, a teenager who lives in a small town in Ontario, Canada. She works as an intern at her local newspaper, and they published her shocking rant. Below is one mom’s response to it. Lura Turriff Belleville from Ontario wrote this rebuttal entitled, Ten Things All Teens Should Know. Enjoy as mom strikes back!

If you haven’t read the first post, you should do so before reading this.

1. We have been there, we have done that, and once you mature, you will see we were right.

2. If you are out with us in public and being rude and/or insolent, we are just as embarrassed to be seen with you as you are to be seen with us. If “discipline” is out of the question, then so is us paying for dinner and your new piercing.

3. Of course you may come and go as you please, as long as your rent money has been paid, you are doing your own laundry, and you don’t mind us blowing an airhorn in your ear to get you up for school the next day.

4. Grounding isn’t for your benefit. It is for ours. Nothing makes us happier than to see a disrespectful teen try to live her life while disconnected from all technology. You know you hate it.

5. When you tell us about your life, any little snippet, we are listening. It is our parental duty to try to offer advice due to reason #1. We know you won’t take it but it’s the only way we will be able to later say “I told you so”.

6. If we allow you to eat whatever you want, what kind of parents would we be? Eat your veggies, you need energy to keep up that cold facade.

7. Reverse psychology is not a last resort, it is just one of many techniques we use to try to raise valuable, independent members of society. We are not trying to gain your respect. We are trying to raise someone we can have respect for.

8. Don’t worry, we won’t ask you who your friends are anymore. Now we will just check your Facebook page and text your friends and their moms. For your wellbeing and our mental health, we need to know where you are and who you are with. If you narrow our options for obtaining information, we will adapt, and you won’t like it.

9. Nagging makes you laugh at us? Good, we are glad to give you a chuckle. Sure much of what we do is stupid-funny to you. We thought the same way about our own parents.

However, if you did as asked the first time, nagging would not be an issue. Totally your call.

10. If we waited for you to suggest “quality time” we wouldn’t have any until you are old, raising your own kids, and finally realizing how much you love and enjoy them and want to spend as much time as possible with them before they too go off to start their own lives.

We know your future is a hard concept to grasp, that’s why we are thinking about it for you. We are trying to “work with you here” and one day you will realize it and then we will gladly accept your apologies.