This week on Dayton Youth Radio, we have a story from Centerville High School student Sarah Weymouth about parents communicating with their teenagers.
You know your kids better than anyone else right? Inside and out, right? I’m sure that’s how my dad felt, up until last week when i gave him a reality check. My parents got divorced when I was 7 years old. Before then, we all lived together happily in our little ranch style home in suburban Centerville, Ohio.
But as my parents' relationship began to dwindle, so did my affection for my father. Finding out the harsh truths as to why my mom left him really hurt my, at the time, ten year old sister, and me deeply. As we grew older my sister and I, being teenage girls, began spending less and less time with our father. It went from every other weekend, to an hour long dinner twice a week.
Since then, our relationship hasn’t changed much. Dinner every once in awhile, a ride to school here and there, that’s just our normal.
Sure, I appreciate that he makes an effort to spend time with me, but he will never understand who his daughter is as a person. I can genuinely say the only people in my life that know me for ME are my boyfriend, and my best friend, Michelle.
Throughout my teenage years of struggle and self-discovery, they understand who I’ve become as a person, but my dad- not so much. In hopes of bringing him up to speed on his complicated and forever changing daughter, I decided to give him and Michelle a little quiz.
When the interviews were said and done and I compared my Dad's answers to Michelle's. I was disappointed, but I wasn't shocked. I knew there were some questions he would get right but there were a lot he would get wrong. Michelle knows me better than anybody in the world, and my dad, doesn't.
My father knows me for me when I was around 10, but I'm 17 and I'm growing up and I'm changing and I'm becoming a woman and I don't know if he'll be able to catch up on everything he's missed.
Sarah Weymouth is a student at Centerville High School. Special Thanks to Tricia Rapoch, teacher for the Communication Arts Program at Centerville High School. Learn more at the school's website: http://www.centerville.k12.oh.us/CHS
Dayton Youth Radio is supported by the Virginia W. Kettering Foundation and the Ohio Arts Council.
