Yes, I have opinions.

And yes, I am a 16 year old girl. Have I lost my credibility?

It is my honest belief that parents disregard their children's ideas, thoughts, and opinions just because "they are the child, and I am the parent". I absolutely loathe it.

Yes, my mom has many more years of life experience than I do, and I'm not saying that parents are a load of bull and teens should parent themselves, but I strongly believe that I'm old enough and mature enough to be part of the decision making conversation.

I view a child-parent relationship like a government. My opinion is that a healthy relationship resembles a democracy, in which the parent is, of course, the highest authority, but the child has a say in decision making. Obviously this model doesn't work for every situation (like nonnegotiable rules and whatnot), but generally this is how I would like my relationship with my mom to work.

I want a say! I want my opinions to be taken into account! And I KNOW I'm not the only teen feeling like this. This is not the beginnings of a rebellion. I'm not trying to become the authority figure. I want compromise. I'm not against boundaries, rules, or curfews, I just want to be considered in the decision making, and I want to be able to discuss compromise.

At this point, my relationship with my mom doesn't look like this, and I desperately want it to. So this is me, discussing the struggles and the victories of creating a democracy in my house.