Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Teenage Angst

One of my favourite bloggers asked me to write about my teenage angst.

I do not know about others, but for me (and my sisters too) I always, always blame my mother for everything.

If a guy I like didn't reciprocate my feelings, I blame my mother for making me ugly. After all I came from her kan ? SO if I am ugly it must be her fault. After all she passed me her jerawat problems didn't she ?

If I felt like I wasn't popular in school, it was because she wouldn't allow me to go out at night like all the popular girls could. Or because she wouldn't buy me cool clothes. Tak habis-habis pakai cullots and bermudas and my rolled up jeans (which my boyfriend si Kamil hated sampai nan la).

If I didn't get good grades, it was Mum's fault because she

a) Didn't send me to my tuition classes so I had to take the bus and because of that I was too tired to concentrate

b)Let my little siblings run riot and therefore the noise they made was a distraction and I could not concentrate (padahal dok busy daydreaming pasal si Kamil...hua hua hua hua)

c) She was too busy with my brother and care more about him so I was busy seething and stewing about it than studying

d) She forced me to take this elective and I have warned her many, many times I could not do it but she wouldn't listen (padahal dia tak cakap apa pun....it was all decided by me)

I believe hormones and stress from school made me like that. I just needed to blame somebody for my problems and she is the closest thing on earth for me to point my finger at. After all, my life depended on her and everything I did was by her laws so if things go wrong, who else to blame ? She was involved in every little details of my life so it made sense to blame her.I wasn't mature enough to look at myself back then. When you are 16-19 you are not calm enough to try rationalise everything. In fact, maturity only knocked on my door yesterday (Kamil would refute that).

Of course those angers were shortlived and when I got back my senses guilt would overwhelm me. But when you are stressed out you just want to shift the blame elsewhere. Itu yang start blaming Mummy for everything under the sun. I would sulk, Mum would ask why and then... big confrontation time. My dad used to call our episodes Small Titan vs Big Titan (Funnily enough I blamed my dad for only a fraction of my problems).

Remember Milli Vanilli's Blame It On The Rain ? Something like that lah. Just want somebody to take the blame as it made life feels a bit better.

And teenage life is very stressful. What could go inside a teenager's mind as she walked from the canteen to her classroom

I don't understand this subject but must pass my flying colours or else I wouldn't get to go to university and thus I wouldn't get to be a doctor... Do I want to be a doctor ? I think ballerina makes more sense because I love those tutus... And then maybe that handsome pengawas would finally notice me.... But then my butt has its own postcode so ada ke tutus yang muat....That is why kot pengawas tu wouldn't even look twice at me.... That damn zit on my nose is getting bigger ! Dare I pop iy ?..Yesterday I saw my bestfriend at the shopping complex with the girl who wanted to steal her and so I am so worried just in case she would stop being my bestfriend...Am I having my period ? Is that why those people are sniggering at me because I have a huge red stain on my back... I think I am going to fail my maths then everybody would laugh at me.... Cikgu just called me stupid in front of everybody tadi. Habislah street cred aku....

Disclaimer : This is just an example. These thoughts never entered the author's mind. Never.


I suppose only moms that are close to their daughters got the brunt of her daughters hormones. You know why ? Because if you are not close to your daughters, too garang and a no nonsense disciplinarian, I do not think your daughters berani nak buat temporary insanity in front of you. Only mak anak with a very ketat bond je experience this kind of thing. People are only brave enough to lash out at people that they are confident of offering them unconditional love. And teenagers are never mature enough to know that stern mothers does not equal bad mothers.

Or you are actually blessed with truly rounded daughters. If that is the case, you are lucky !

Hehhehe.......

I know it doesn't help much. As I really do not know the root cause. But I know this is normal.

You know, before mid-life crisis and menopause, you may have to go through teenage angst first.

6 comments:

Madam Tai Tai Again said...

Cik Puan, THANK YOU for this posting. And thank you for making it all into some sense now.

I guess when we were younger my siblings and I didn't have any teenage angst because we subconsciously knew my mom just couldn't handle it with all the worries that she was burdened with. We spared her that.

My daughter knows I have too much time on my hand hence she misbehaves with me. Sigh...bring me the menopause!!! I think I can handle that better than this teenage angst thing.

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Kak Gina...you are such a good daughter for sparing your mom from your moods. My mom had a lot of problems too as we were growing up but I never gave it a moment's notice !

I hope she forgives me... and would not retaliate during her senior years.... heheheheh

Norliana Abdul Rahman said...

aku tak de close bonding dgn mak aku so tak de these kindda things..

BUT, aku (rasa) aku quite close dgn balqis. in fact dari sekarang aku selalu dok gaduh dgn dia (or dia yg gaduh dgn aku). ada je benda tak puas hati.

kekdg tu aku geram and nak gaduh jer balik.. tapi bila tersedar yg aku ni mak, dah tua bangka pulak tu.. sabarkan je la...

ni baru nak masuk 8 tahun.. lagi 5 - 10 tahun aku tak tau la mcm mana gaya..

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Hehheheh.... biasalah tu... Budak2 sekarang mmg advanced kan ! Good luck to both of us.

Babe, bila lah kita nak berjumpa2 ni ?

Ah-Zee said...

For me, trouble din actually start to brew until my late-teen. Altercations wif my mum happened quite alot to d extent dat we once werent talking for abt 2 mths over something trivial which i cant even remember wat it was. Thots of running away from home cropped up countless times in my mind but luckily, i chickened out . Looking back now, at dat pt of time, she was in her mid-50s, prolly going thru menopause and very much angsty herself. We can conclude dat the lethal combo of a raging teenager and a menopausal mother equals a volatile ticking bomb. It was a terrible phase for both of us then and had we been more open abt the changes we were going thru emotionally and physiologically, we cud hv handled issues in a more rational manner :(

Cik Puan Kamil said...

Oh dear... u guys sounded busy !! But that is normal lah kan... My mom had a hard time with me because I was her first so she didn't know how to handle me.

But when it came to my younger sisters she was more armed and knowledgable so she handled them better.

Here is hoping that I would know how to handle my daughter... and be more understanding about it...