<p>OP, you asked: “Am I out of line in opposing these measures? Am I just a spoiled brat? I need advice.”</p>
<p>Sorry, James. Based on what I’ve read so far, I’m going to have to say, “You’re apparently a spoiled brat.” Either that, or you’re suffering from some sort of pervasive personality disorder similar to Asperger’s. Or worse.</p>
<p>To me, you communicate an air of arrogance and disdain in your writing. You have an air of superiority that seems to have no basis. You come across as so absurdly entitled that I’ve even wondered in the last few pages of this thread if you’re a ■■■■■. Most people your age, who had the self-absorbed thoughts you have, would keep them to themselves, since thoughts of that nature reveal not-so-nice things about you. (Not that I’m espousing insincerity.) But you practically brag about your inappropriate ideas! And you say things about yourself that are clearly not true based on other things you say about yourself. For example, you keep saying you’re responsible, but just about everything else you’ve told us says that you’re not. Or that you’re already grown up and can take care of yourself. But you’re not; you don’t; and you can’t. So on top of all those other things, your sense of yourself seems to be significantly skewed and diametrically opposed to others’ sense of you.</p>
<p>I feel sad for you. And, really honestly, you scare me a little. Because your posts scream, “Nobody’s as important as me!” And that feels like “sociopath.” You seem to readily resort to hostility, criticism, and sarcasm when people disagree with you, all the while sounding smug, as though you’ve showed them. You’re frighteningly self-absorbed. You lack empathy. You seem to think of yourself as better than everybody else who took the time to read and answer your post. You’re oppositional and resistant to authority and structure and rules, much more than most of your peers. (And those are somewhat typical teenage traits.) You’re only 17 or 18 and yet so very condescending. To me, these are all very worrisome things.</p>
<p>I don’t know you, of course. I only know what I have read on this thread. And you don’t make a good impression here at all. In my opinion.</p>
<p>If you were my 17/18 year old child, I would probably impose stricter rules than what your parents have imposed. I might take you to some third world country, set you up with some charitable organization, and leave you there to work. Volunteer work, that is. With your brains AND your body. You need rehab for the soul, in my estimation. (Unless there’s some other underlying disorder.)</p>
<p>If you didn’t comply with my new rules, I would probably boot you out of my house, with possibly 24 hours notice, and let you worry about all the details as to where and how you’ll get housing and food. It wouldn’t be too long before you’d discover how well molding the world to your will feeds and clothes you. In fact, I’m wondering now why all the poor, starving people in world don’t just work a little harder to mold the world to their will. That seems so much easier than doing all those things they probably don’t want to do or don’t like to do – like starving. </p>
<p>James, if I were your parent, I would do all this as a last ditch effort to save you. While I still had some authority over you. You would not like me much. But I wouldn’t care. I would know that your future happiness depended on you having a much less self-absorbed, entitled, privileged fantasy about life.</p>
<p>To me, you sound like a very, very difficult child. If you’re difficult because of some underlying disorder, then you need some help. And you have my sympathies and compassion. If you’re difficult because you’ve been spoiled rotten, well … I’m afraid your parents will have to share culpability in that, but you’re still the one who’s going to live with the problem for the rest of your life, and you’re still the one who’s on the hook for your own behavior.</p>
<p>I wish you the best, James. Grow, grow, grow!</p>