why dont kids ever take their parents advice so they dont have to learn the hard way?

Answer 1

Unfortantly, they have to learn for themselves. As a parent I find myself telling my son things that I hope will help him in life. But in the end he will probably have to learn these important lessons himself. I love him and I will be there for him. When he does well I will cheer for him, when he doesn't I will be there to help him work through "what went wrong" I think kids think that parents 'didn't have it as rough, or times are different' and maybe they are but that doesn't mean we haven't made our own mistakes. If you are an adult try to look back on your own life and see if you made any mistakes. We all do, it's a vital part of life and learning.

Answer 2

1) Kids tend to have short attention spans. They are interested in a lot of things that are all competing for their attention. They lose track of the 'right track'. Even doing something like watching TV, sitting on the couch, a kid is subjected to messages that are so short, they don't have to pay much attention. It doesn't help.
2) Kids spend a lot of time with other kids. There's something about a crowd that makes it a lot dumber than an individual. If you don't believe me, watch the members of the United States Congress.
3) There's just a lot of advice out there. But parents can't advise you about every single thing because they can't follow you around 24/7. They give you advice to try to protect you but when a new situation comes along, they know you're going to have to cobble together some kind of good response. That doesn't alway happen the way they wish it would - kids will get smacked with the harsh reality of consequences. This is what parents think about and fear (car crashes, binge drinking, kidnaping, unplanned pregnancy; I could go on and on....)

Answer 3

Because if everyone listens their parents all the time, they will never know why and never learn anything about life. Then what would they do when parents die? We all have to learn the hard way sometimes, or maybe all the time. The thing is, never make same mistakes.

Answer 4

Kids honestly believe that their parents have never gone through what they are going through right now. They almost tune out when you say " When I was your age", they can't imagine them ever being young.( I know that's how I felt and feel now with two teens).
I learned that the best way to ever learn anything about life is to learn hands on. It may be tough to watch them go through it but usually the next time they remember your words of wisdom and many times will use it.

Answer 5

Okay well i am 17, so i think that i can pretty much relate to this.. My mom always tells me what to do, and with teens, they either think that you are over reacting, or making something that "happened" to you up. We think that we are old enough to know everything, and i pretty much thought I knew everything to, the i got a dog. And this totally was a reality check to me! we have koi pong in our back yard, and my dog, is a little min pin, she always sits on the corners right next to the water to try and catch fish. I have to punish her afterwards, but its for her own sake! Now that made me realize that when my parents "nagged " me or punished me its because they care about me. Sometimes it takes the hard way to learn how to listen.. ♥

Answer 6

I personally had to learn things for myself. When I was young I NEVER took my mother's advice. I mean come on- what did she know about life during my generation? Yeah well, ends up she knew a lot more than I gave her credit for. And if I hadn't learned my lessons the hard way I would not have learned them at all.

Answer 7

Because parents' advice is based on experiences several decades in the past and may not still be valid. Kids usually do listen to their parents but they need to test where their parents are giving good advice and where they aren't.

Answer 8

Maybe they take your advice as a form of nagging, at least that's how I perceives them when I was a teen. Teen needs to experience themselves to be able to learn, it's a way to protect their egos. They're in the stage of indentity vs identity confusion( Erickson), they won't take advices from others because they want to find their own identity.

Answer 9

Here's the bright side: kids either rebell or move away. Your child is choosing to rebell.

What my parents did for me was took me through the book Proverbs. There's one proverb that says, "The wise man welcomes criticism and learns from it, while the foolish man despises it. The wise man learns from other people's mistakes, while the foolish man learns from his own." That hit me, so I took it to heart. Maybe your teenager will take it to heart, too.

Answer 10

You can't learn from others mistakes, only the ones you make.