Family Vacations

            Family vacations. What more do I need to say?  As a teenager I, along with countless other teenagers, dread the time spent alone with their family and away from their friends.  Here I am, on Spring Break, and instead of partying with my friends I am sitting in a hotel room with my parents and brother.  Honestly, there are so many things that I wish I was doing right now, and this is not one of them.

            I am sitting at a place known as FunCity, and I have so far, for the most part, not been able to find the Fun part in it.  Sure, this place is great for little kids, and especially younger boys, but I can’t get into the idea of swimming with my family and playing laser tag against my brother.  The only savior this entire trip has been the fact that one of my friends just happened to be here at the same time with his family, it sort of saved the entire trip for me.

            I feel as though a plea should be made to all parents not to force their teenagers to partake in family trips if they don’t want to.  Not only has it been completely boring for me, my parents have also told me to shut my phone off.  Parents, a teenager away from their friends and forced to give up their phone will always be a grump, not matter what so don’t do it to them.

            Teenagers, if you are forced to go on one of these family trips, at least try to enjoy it.  Don’t be constantly on your phone but rather just occasionally check it.  Participate in the activities with your family, no matter how stupid they may be, or how “uncool” they might make you; I can guarantee your parents will appreciate it.  I know these trips suck, trust me, but pretend for the sake of everyone in your family.

            My parents will always be those parents that don’t think that any friends should be included in a family trip.  If you have parents from mine, try talking them into letting a close cousin come with instead, so maybe you have someone to do stuff with when no one else in your family wants to do the same stuff as you.  There is always some way that a trip can be made entertaining, even if you don’t think there is a way, so be creative and have fun.  Try smooth talking your parents into something, or tell a friend to go with their family at the same time, you never know, they might actually do it.

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Regrets

            We are all in high school, right? So we have probably all done things that we regret.  We all make mistakes, right?  But I feel like there are also some of those mistakes we make that we can’t even tell our best friend.  If you can’t tell your best friend, what are you supposed to do then?  Honestly, I don’t have the answer to that even though I really wish I did right now.

            I guess, if you are one of the people that go to church, mosque, temple, or whatever you may call it; you may want to pray about what you did.  Isn’t praying supposed to give you forgiveness? I don’t know, I usually sleep in church.

            There is always the chance that you will eventually be able to find that one person you can confide in with the information to help remove some of the guilt, even if they aren’t your best friend, just make sure that you can trust them.  Sometimes people can surprise you, and you may make a friend out of this mistake.

            If you can’t find someone to confide in, over time the guilt will diminish.  Give everything time and you will eventually find a bright side to what happened even if it seems like there never could be one.  Most importantly, remember this one mistake doesn’t define who you are.

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China's One-Child Policy

            Since I was a tiny freshman in high school, I have been taking Chinese as my foreign language, and this year I have also been taking AP Comparative Government for my government class.  I have always wondered more about China’s One-Child Policy and in the past week we have been talking about China in government and it has once again come up making me curious.

            During the time of Mao Zedong, the population growth in China was not viewed as in issue.  The increasing population was instead viewed as human labor and the revolutionary enthusiasm as national assets.  Therefore, during the time of Mao, little was done to promote family planning in China.

            By the early 1970s, the population of China was over 800 million people and was growing at a rate of 2.8 percent per year, meaning China’s population would double in just twenty-five years.  In the 1980s the Chinese government started what has become known as the One-Child Policy.  The policy over time has used various means to encourage or even force couples to only have one child.

            Media campaigns have been used to promote the patriotic virtues and material benefits of having small families.  Incentives, such as more farmland or preferred housing have been offered to families with only one child, and fines or demotions have been given to those who violate the policy.  In some areas of the country, workplace medics or local doctors monitor contraceptive use and women’s fertility cycles, and a couple must have official permission to have a child.  Defiance of the laws has led to forced abortions and sterilizations.

            Now, 30 years later, the population of China is now at 1.3 billion people and the growth is about 0.8 percent per year; which means it was take eighty-seven years for the population to double.  However, the policy has also caused some debate.  The intrusive nature of the family planning and extensive use of abortions as the major means of birth control have led to criticism from the international community.

            Many Chinese farmers have evaded the One-Child Policy by not registering births because of the need for labor following the return to household-based agriculture.  The belief that boys will contribute more to the family and that a male heir is necessary have caused many rural families to make sure that they have a son by taking drastic measures.  Female infanticide and abandonment have increased dramatically, and with the increase in ultra-sound technology the number of sex-selective abortions of female fetuses.  China is now believed to have a gender ratio of nearly 120 boys for every 100 girls, with an estimated 70 million more males than females.  The large gap, it is worried, may have already led to “bride stealing” and other kinds of trafficking.

            The Chinese government, in response to pressure, has begun to relax its policies somewhat.  Forced abortions are now infrequent, although sex-selective abortions have continued.  Rural couples are now allowed to have two children and in the cities the policy is still basically in effect.

            So although the One-Child Policy was able to achieve its purpose in lowering the population growth in China, it has also had some unforeseen consequences that will have to continue to be sorted out in the years to come.

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Money vs. Jobs vs. Parents

            I have always been a supporter of teenagers having a job and making some of their own money.  However, recently I have started to think that even though making our own money teaches responsibility, there is a point where as teenagers we are still in school and have other things that we do with our time and parents should still help us out some.

            From the kids I have talked to, I have been unable to really find many parents that are willing to meet in the middle and help their kids out; they all either spoil their kids rotten and give them everything they want, or no matter how busy they are they have to buy everything on their own and if they run out of gas in the middle of the road… who cares?

            Personally, my parents are the later of the two described and as a teenager this can be very difficult and stressful.  Not only are my parents like the later of the two described, I work two jobs during the summer to save money for the busy points during the year when I can’t work but I am not allowed to spend any of the money from the higher wage earner of the two.

            Currently I work every Friday and Saturday night, as I cannot afford to take anytime off which hurts the possibility of any social life for a teenager during the school year.  While I work, I make minimum wage and usually about a dollar in tips a night.  This means that each month I make about $130.  Before you have to start paying for gas, you may think that $130 isn’t that bad to get by, but if you figure that my car gets 22 mpg and every day I have to drive to and from school which is about 10 miles all together, and work is about 20 miles away one direction; so almost all my money goes right to gas.  The little bit of money I do have left goes to the food I have to eat that my parents also won’t pay for.

            I want to know where enough is enough.  Personally, at this point I feel as though I should move out and get a job that I will work later at nights and school nights which my parents won’t allow.  I already pay for everything on my own anyway, all I would be adding is rent.  But is there a point where parents are too controlling and too expecting of their children? It sure feels like mine do.

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