Zander's Inside Voice

I am so tired of junk email. You order something from a place once and it’s like you’re stuck with them for life. Why doesn’t the unsubscribe button work for certain email lists? I have an app that helps with cleaning email and even that seems unable to unsubscribe me from some email lists! I am over junk emails, political emails that seem to be threatening me for not donating all year, and emails in foreign languages that I don’t understand at all. Where does it all come from?

I’m also tired of saying “clean your room” and “take a shower.” Why are these hard concepts to understand? If I have been fighting with you to clean your room for 5 years or more, why is it a mystery that you need to actually clean it? I am not even a very neat and organized person. It doesn’t have to be perfect. But damn it, please remove the garbage from your floor, pick up your clean clothes and stop putting them with your dirty clothes (which should be in a hamper anyway), and DO NOT BRING FOOD INTO YOUR ROOM! And why isn’t showering intuitive by now? Why does an almost 12 year old need to put up a huge fight to take a bath/shower? Again, this is a thing that has been occurring since before you remember. Just do it when I tell you. With soap and water. And YES, please apply deodorant afterwards. And I shouldn’t need to say this, but put on CLEAN clothes. Not the same ones you wore into the bathroom. AND HOW THE HECK DO YOU MAKE THE BATHTUB SO SLIPPERY?! What is turning the tub into an ice skating rink? Whatever you’re doing or not doing that makes that happen, STOP. Please just stop.

Why does an underweight teenager need to come down the stairs like he’s falling down them? Every damn time he sounds like he’s tumbling down, head over heels but he’s not. It’s just his long legs taking 2-3 stairs at a time, with every ounce of his might, like he wants to put his legs through the stairs. I’ve had enough of that nonsense today.

People who think teenagers/kids today are just so darn disrespectful…give me a break. Everyone thinks the generation behind them is rude and disrespectful. Judging every child or teenager based on a handful of rude ones you happened to interact with is pretty stupid. I’ve met incredible and kind teenagers and I’ve met asshole teenagers. I have also met very kind and generous older people and I met asshole older people. It’s just the nature of PEOPLE! And maybe someone older/younger was having a bad day when you had that ONE interaction with them. The over generalizing is just so annoying. Be kind and you will see kindness in return. You approach teenagers with that holier than though attitude, you are going to get it back. I am not saying that you have to cater to them, but just be kind and respectful and don’t assume that they will be disrespectful just because they are a teenager. That’s the funny thing about life, if you are looking for it, you will probably find it. You’re looking to find disrespecful teenagers, you will. You are looking for people slighting you, you will find that everywhere you turn. But if you expect to find kindness, and you are also putting out kindness, that is what you will find. Other than someone having a bad day. You can’t predict that. Just aim to not be the cause of someone’s bad day.