Being 21, I’ve lived long enough to notice the difference between being an adult and being a teenager and being 21, I have started to feel more maternal and started to care notice how much my relationship with my parents means to me. 

From the age of 14 to 19, I was the stereotypical teenager: I was moody, I back-chatted, I thought the whole world was against me and I just didn’t want to be at home. All of this meant that I would lock myself up in my room because I didn’t want to spend any time with my parents because every time I would see them, they would nag me. It didn’t help that I was suffering from depression and anxiety at the time but the 20 minutes during the day where I would see my parents would just become a nightmare for me.

Having a younger sister – who is 7 years younger than me – has made me realise how important my relationship with my parents is. After coming out of a 2-year relationship, I was heart broken and my parents were my only foundations. I realised that from the age of 14, I had taken them for granted, I had treated them like rubbish and I realised that by me staying up in my room, that was me stopping myself from having a relationship with my parents.

I’m now 21 and spend most of the day with my parents. I sit down with them when I can, I am nearly 100% open with them about my life; whenever there is a problem, I know that I can go to them for help. If you asked me 6 years ago if I could be fully open with my parents, I would have laughed and said ‘no.’ But after going through the hell that I have gone through, I have now realised that I need my parents; I need them to be there; I love having the interaction with them.

My parents and I don’t argue anymore (apart from little tiffs roughly once every two weeks), I am now trying to help my sister to understand that she needs to start respecting our parents and that she needs to start making an effort. I can tell her that from experience and I can tell my sister that because I am now trying to make up for the years that I caused them pain.

We only get one set of parents who we know will be there for us whenever we need them. We need to treat them with a humongous amount of love and respect because we don’t know what tomorrow could bring.

I love my parents. I really do. And if I could re-do my teenage years, I wouldn’t act moody, I wouldn’t yell at them, I wouldn’t threaten them nearly every week that I’ll run away. If I re-did my teenage years, I would treat them like the angels that they are; I would be the best daughter that they could possibly ask for.

I love my parents.