Jayden Federline is Kevin Federline and Britney Spears’ younger son (Sean Preston is the older one). Jayden is 13 years old. And like many 13 year olds, he experiments with social media. Unlike most kids, though, when Jayden does an Instagram Live event, his words get splashed around TMZ, Page Six and all of the gossip outlets. On Tuesday, Jayden did an IG Live where he said dumb sh-t about his grandfather and more (I’m not going to embed any of the video, the child is 13):
Britney Spears‘ 13-year-old son, Jayden Federline, ripped into his grandfather Jamie Spears in a no-holds-barred rant on Instagram Live on Tuesday. When a follower wrote, “kill your grandfather,” Jayden responded, “Bro, I was thinking the same thing,” in the almost 20-minute video. Jayden is the younger son of Britney and ex-husband Kevin Federline.
Then, when a fan asked the teen, “Is your grandpa a jerk?,” Jayden responded, “Yeah, he’s a pretty big d—k. He’s pretty f—king gay as s—t. He can go die.”
During his Instagram Live, Jayden denied that his mother was being controlled, but said he would open up more about her situation once he reached 5,000 followers. Jayden said he last saw his mother two days prior to recording the video, but was currently staying with his dad, whom he praised. “I have the best dad ever,” he said. “My dad is literally Jesus.”
Although Jayden slammed Jamie, he praised Britney’s boyfriend, Sam Asghari, saying he was “nice” and calling him a “really good dude.” He also spoke highly of his maternal grandmother Lynn Spears, saying, “My grandma is literally the best grandma in the universe. All of my grandmas, actually.”
He also said that Britney told him at one point that she might quit the music business, and he told her that she should stick with it for the money. Obviously, the Jamie Spears part of the thing is getting the most attention. It should be noted that in late August of 2019, Jamie Spears literally beat down a door to get his hands on Jayden and Sean and then he violently shook one of them. It was such a big deal that the police investigated Jamie for child abuse (he wasn’t charged) and the status of Britney and Kevin’s custodial arrangement changed via an emergency court order. It’s also worth noting that Jamie seems like a massively controlling douchebag. None of that excuses Jayden’s words, but it puts some stuff in context, and also… the kid is 13 years old and letting off some steam on Instagram. And K-Fed is on the case:
Kevin Federline is “handling” the aftermath of his 13-year-old son Jayden’s explosive new Instagram rant as a “family matter,” Federline’s attorney exclusively tells Page Six.
“It’s the result of a 13-year-old acting like a 13-year-old,” Los Angeles family law attorney Mark Vincent Kaplan told us on Wednesday. “Kevin is handling it like a responsible parent.”
I would assume that means… Jayden is grounded, with no phone, no Instagram and no TV for two weeks? Is that the appropriate punishment these days? Read a book, Jayden!
Photos courtesy of Instagram.
It was a whole mess and I am glad Kevin is handling it privately as it should be done.
+1
I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how he’s really stepped up from his gold-digger image.
he’s been a stable presence in both the kids’ and Brit’s lives, and that can only be good.
on another note, Mel Brooks loves that tree, too! I saw a recent doc with him and he made a point to stop by that tree and “show it off”.
Ha! My first thought was “dang what a cool tree”, I’m such a tree nerd! I will stop on the side of smaller roads to go check them out, huge southern magnolias are the best for climbing and thinking about life:)
When I read about this he sounded pretty rotten to me and that’s not even taking the Jaime comments into account. What he said about telling his mom not to quit music just because she makes a lot of money from it made me really upset for her that her own child would say that. I hope he was just putting on a front to look cool but still…she clearly isn’t happy doing it anymore.
Kevin only gets paid if Britney has a salary. The kid has been too exposed to the Federlining…
Kids don’t lie. They really can’t about emotional issues. I’m certain ppl will debate this-
He grew around people who lives off Britney money, his father, her father. It’s in his head that she is bringing the money, it’s super sad that even her kids seems to not support her well being. I hope this is just the teenage years and he grows to understand what his mother went through.
She makes more money from having squillions of perfume lines than anything.
He’s 13, ffs
Yes. As a general rule, 13yo boys are mouthy. They’re probably bullied every now and then at school because most have to endure stupidity, which in turn, creates a bit of bullying. And these boys’ parents are none other than… Add to that historical family toxicity.
Are there rules about how old you have to be to have an Instagram? I would think you’d need to be 16 or have parental consent or something like that but maybe I’m just way out of the loop on social media. I don’t have any.
Why is he allowed to livestream though? I can’t imagine that anything, no matter how innocuous, he said wouldn’t make it into tabloids and be picked apart and talked about forever. So why do his parents let him? I’m shocked at his language, too. Not necessarily the swearing (I have a 13yo son and I’m sure he swears with his friends to be “cool” but I highly doubt he would swear in a video that his dad and I and everyone else will see) but using “gay” as a disparaging insult. What kind of horrible, preppy, rich white kid school is he going to? It sounds like he’s surrounded by some horrible “friends” at school, the type of entitled, popular kid, bullies that make everyone else’s school experience awful.
@Amy too, I think the age to get an account is 13, just like fb. I can’t really see how parents could manage to stop a kid from live-streaming from their own account unless there’s something built into the app for parental control (and kids learn to deactivate those really fast!). It could be used as a teachable moment as to why you shouldn’t do that because you’ll likely going to look like a brat.
I only read CBs post. My bad lol. I see 13yo boy and misbehavior, and roll my eyes as though I understand. Spears, her family, her ex, these boys…they’ve always been cooking with toxic ingredients.
And social media with kids? No way. Mine is 14, and he still uses my YouTube account lol. He can social media his ass off when he’s applying for colleges and jobs. I warned all three of mine to pretend they see my face every time they throw something into cyberspace. He has a phone. And I’m not an idiot. So yes, our conversations are disgustingly up-to-date. Blech.
But I’ve been having these convos their whole lives. These boys needed support, attention and conversations a long time ago. They are 13. And they are entitled and spoiled 13yos. So not only are they behaving like pubescent turds, they’re privileged turds with money to spend. I don’t see them getting what they need, only what they don’t. If I had a say, I’d take everything away.
And at 13 he should damn well know not to use homophobic slurs.
@Erinn. Yes this! No one seems to mention the slurs. I’m like excuse me? So no kudos for Federline’s parenting skills. You’d squash that like a bug as soon as you hear it.
I feel like Jamie has been trying to keep Britney sane and not let her squander all of her money. He wants her alive. All Jayden knows is that he is strict with the money he gives to Kevin, and strict with Britney. It’s understandable. The kid is just parroting his parents. Maybe with age, he’ll see Jamie is in a tough position and has to play bad cop in order to keep things from going off the rails.
None of that makes shaking a child acceptable. No one gives Brad Pitt a pass for whatever happened on the plane; no one should give Britney’s dad one either.
Yes exactly
For sure. I don’t remember that incident at all. But he shouldn’t be physical with the kids, that goes without saying. I’m team Britney. She seems like a genuinely decent human being who has been through the ringer and back. I hate that all of the people around her are such garbage. I hope her boys can be better. This isn’t a great showing.
I think Brad Pitt got all the passes everywhere but in this site
All Jayden knows, for sure, is the abuse that he was witnessed & lived from his grandpa. That’s what he knows, and it’s more than we do.
I was taken aback when he called his grandpa “gay” in a demeaning way. I have a 13 y/o that does not use that term as a put down, or in a negative light, so I know it’s possible & surprised that with his upbringing, he would use that word as a slur.
I also have a thirteen year old boy who does not call people gay as an insult. Jayden sounds like he’s being raised in 1998.
I do not envy kids and the adults raising them in the age of social media, much less those with fame. It used to be you could lash out and grow outside the constant eye of the world, and now it’s blasted out there for everybody to see and lives indefinitely on the web. You can’t expect kids to understand the long term impact of their choices and behaviors at that age, but here’s a way it can have permanent repercussions.
Fifteen years ago I never thought I’d be saying this, but Kevin Federline has really impressed me over the years by seeming to be a good, loving, hands-on dad who looks out for those boys’ best interests.
He doesnt sound like he will be a very nice person. Might be just acting “cool” for insta…. But yuck!
Ornery 13 yr old acts like an ornery 13 yr old on SM.
Exactly! I remember my kids at that age and they both said and did things just for the shock value, of course this was long before social media (thank god) but those teenage years seemed to last forever.
I thought the kid’s comments were mild considering all the press about it. With kids it’s wise to remember what the kindergarten teacher tells you on welcome day, if you believe only half of what your kid says then I’ll do the same. Lol
“Jayden denied that his mother was being controlled, but said he would open up more about her situation once he reached 5,000 followers.”
Sounds like he’s willing to sell out his family for fame and money.
Yeah that was….not great
That’s all he has ever seen, he has two homes, a herd of siblings and wants for nothing (monetarily).
It’s telling that the two people he is dismissive of are the only ones with a job.
I dunno about that – I took that comment to be about getting attention and trying to build up a SM presence.
Though it does make he kinds worry about those boys when they get older and if they want to get into the entertainment industry.
He’s just a kid acting out wanting attention from his peers.
It’s both, though. He’s purposely using his mothers situation to profit. The only point of doing it is so he can try to make money as an influencer.
He’s absolutely acting out and looking for attention – which, no wonder… but I worry about the amount of ‘eh well, he’s 13’ that I’m seeing in the comments. I’m sorry, a 13 year old is old enough to know not to use ‘gay’ as an insult. It’s a huge red flag to me that he would use it so openly in a live stream. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if he was using homophobic and racial slurs on the regular, but people will chalk it up to ‘oh he’s just a kid, it’s ingrained in the gaming community, give him a chance’ and then wonder why boys/men are doing shitty things.
@erinn I don’t disagree that there’s a LOT of problematic language & thinking going on with this child. But I remember using the term “gay” as a slur until high school. I’m deeply ashamed to admit it, but believe it or not I had no concept of WHY using gay as a pejorative was bad. It wasn’t until a classmate confronted me and explained it to me did it ever occur to me the actual implications of what I was saying. Of course, my experience is anecdotal, but my whole life I’ve seen myself as socially progressive and still consistently cringe at the uninformed dipsh*t I used to be. My inclination is to not blame this kid, his life is insane enough as it is. Every 13 year old can be a little bit of a jerk, it’s our job as adults to help make sure they don’t stay that way
Julie, I think it’s a bit harder to cut slack when we’ve made huge leaps forward. I graduated high school in the mid-late 2000’s. I know that our teachers were cracking down on the use of the word back then. But since then we’ve had a decent sized social shift (still not NEARLY enough, but it’s definitely changing) and it’s becoming more and more common place for kids to grow up with classmates, or classmate’s parents that are gay, trans, non-binary, etc. I have a hard time believing that exposure and education hasn’t increased awareness past what we were at 12-15 years ago.
I think my concern is mainly tied into – this is what the kids putting out PUBLICLY on a live stream. It’s clearly part of his everyday vocabulary. I do find it alarming in that sense – because even the friends or classmates that I knew growing up who would say some shitty things weren’t spouting it from the rooftops, you know? Like… their parents weren’t hearing it, and they weren’t yelling it out in class or anything – they knew that it wasn’t something to throw around everywhere. It makes me wonder what other things the kid is saying in a less publicized platform.
And I know it’s not easy being a teen, and I think his overall attitude is problematic, but somewhat typical of kids that age … it’s the specific things that he’s saying that concern me, and I don’t think it’s wise for any of us to just be like ‘eh, he’s just a kid’. He deserves some space for sure, but he should be called out for doing shitty things – it just needs to be done appropriately.
Yeah, I know he’s 13 – so will give a slight pass… hopefully that was more of a 13 year old trying to get a bit of short-term attention/cred, and not something that foreshadows his long-term future actions/lifestyle…
I thought Britney was better off with her dad as conservator than her mom who sold out her sister to a tabloid when she got pregnant at 16, but her dad sounds awful too.
Poor Britney honestly does anyone truly care about her well-being and not just money they make off her?
Of course Lynne is a cool grandma. She probably can’t say no either.
Homophobic slurs coming out of a 13-yr olds mouth in this day and age? Ugh.
Ugh, it’s been getting thrown around in my 6 year old’s class. We have a lot of gay friends, so my son knows being gay is not a bad thing, but he and others also know that it bothers some kids to be called that. I actually asked him after I heard his group of friends was calling a kid gay if being gay was bad. He said ‘no’. Then he came home asking if it was illegal to be gay because someone told him that. There’s two kids in his class with gay parents, I hope they’re not hearing this. Basically, it’s a mixed bag. We talk about it all the time, but he’s getting different messages from other kids who are probably getting different messaging from their parents. Hopefully, by 13, he’ll have the fortitude to stick with what he knows is right, but honestly, I have no idea.
W O W I guess homophobia and ignorance are truly alive and well in this country.
…along with just about every other country in the world. What’s your point?
I was alarmed from the beginning of this article reading that someone thinks it’s okay to message a child “kill your grandfather” —this is why children need to be protected from social media. Also the fact that he speaks in extremes is telling; his grandfather is a “s-ht” and his father is “jesus.” And also the fact that he’s calling for a certain number of followers before he reveals more about his life, and telling his mom to keep working and compromising her life and mental health for money…. Doesn’t seems like whoever is raising him is doing so with a good foundation. This kid is gonna fall hard if someone isn’t teaching him the right things.
These kids have seen a lot of abuse. At this age, not every kid has perspective. There are some emotional prodigies, but most kids who are this age coming out of abusive situations have weird, unhealthy perspectives. He grew up in show business, and I’m sure he’s been terrified in a lot of situations: remember when Britney locked herself in her room with the boys and the police surrounded them to get them out? That’s just the stuff we know about.
My kid was abused by her dad. She was like this. Her father wanted her to have a Hollywood career, and I had to fight him in court. He’s a diagnosed narcissistic sociopath with Hollywood connections. I am a government employee who grew up poor, but who is now financially stable and married. I spent most of my earnings for 11 years responding to his court pleadings and trying to keep her safe. One thing that I had to do to change her materialism and hatred was to not control what she said, because he was controlling everything she said. I told her that she could talk to anybody about anything I said or did, because her life and perceptions were important. She had to trust her eyes and ears, because he lived to gaslight both of us. I couldn’t save her until the court appointed her an attorney, and the attorney fought to give her to me because he wouldn’t let her talk to her attorney without him being there. He was controlling everything she said. She was telling people, including the court, that my husband was a pedophile because her dad told her to say it. It was awful.
She is fine now, in college, kind, hard working. She never wants to see her dad again. We have a permanent domestic violence restraining order. It took about 5-6 years for me and a team of psychological professionals to unwind the materialism and teach her the value of working hard and of having hope and appreciating what you have.
Jayden, to me, is acting like an angry 13 year old who has an unstable home environment, and I want to believe that Jayden’s parents and grandparents are trying to teach him, and that he’s in therapy, but he’s a hurt 13 year old. He may or may not make it. It’s too early to tell. Normal 13 year olds act like assholes. Hurt kids can be much, much worse. Yes, this should be kept private, but that isn’t always possible when you are dealing with preteens and teaching them to trust themselves. They need room to mess up. This family happens to be high profile, so it will look much worse for all of them, but that doesn’t mean that his perceptions don’t matter.
As a survivor of abuse, I will never advocate telling kids to keep quiet about what they see and live. That is teaching people to hide abuse.
Christina, I read your comment and all I could think was NICE PARENTING! Wow. You and your family have learned some very tough lessons. My hat is off to you. Parenting well is hard enough, parenting through your situation? That is incredible.
I wish Britney and Kevin could be parented by you … Jayden too. XO
Hi Christina! I just want to say that I really appreciate your perspective about helping your kids learn to trust what they’re seeing and hearing and validating their perceptions. I have a 4 yo son and I haven’t heard this concept explained so plainly and clearly. Thank you for the reminder.
@Pineapple and LAUGHYSAPHY, thank you. Your comment is so sweet after years of people not believing me, and being ostracized in our neighborhood because everyone believed my ex because she refused to come home and everyone thought that my husband was a pedophile. Now that the ex has been convicted of other stuff and my kid was returned to me, everything is fine. But parenting her was HARD. I would talk to her and then go to my room and just cry.
One of the psychologists told me that parents want to control kids, but that you can’t really control anybody. I couldn’t yell or punish her. I had to make her see that doing the right thing was in her own best interests so that she’d do the right thing when I wasn’t around. I had to let her trust what she thought, even if it was hating me. I think a lot of people feel that they have the right to control the people around them. You can control little kids, and you can have rules for 13 year-olds, but rules don’t mean anything if they want to break them. You can’t just jump on a kid and shake them or hit them or scream them into submission. That just makes it worse. You can’t put your feelings about your reputation before you children. And you can’t teach them, “what happens in this house stays in this house”, because that teaches kids to be victims of other people’s control, and that can lead to physical and sexual abuse.
Christina, you are a really strong woman. Just wow. Crazy story, sounds like a movie. It must have been really painful. The fact that you made it through and the wisdom you’ve gain from it is really impressive. I learned from your comments today, thank you
“but said he would open up more about her situation once he reached 5,000 followers.”
Honestly I think this is the most worrying part of the entire story.
Where oh where did he get the idea to sell out his mom? This smells more like grandma Spears than something daddy would condone.
My kids aren’t yet teenagers, but my eight year-old often acts like one. Empathy is a learned trait, and candidly, I find that it takes a more developed brain to really let that value blossom. Teenagers have bad moments. Hormonal moments. Genuinely shit, abhorrent moments. It doesn’t mean their parents are bad at parenting, and it doesn’t mean that the teen is a bad person. Guiding a child towards being a kind adult takes so much work, and there are so often setbacks – to me, rando internet stranger, this says that he’s struggling with puberty, and his relationship with his grandfather. Unfortunately, we live in an era where privacy is eroded because social media is a norm. Kids are using social media as a replacement for interpersonal relationships and connection, and that certainly compounds the issue.
Regardless, this is sad, and it should be handled privately by his parents.
Thank you so much!
Amen!
He sounds like a fairly normal 13 year old boy who got into a big argument with his grandfather. He shouldn’t say he wants him to die though.
Dying probably translates to go away in the kid’s mind.
Exactly. I nearly had a stroke three months ago, and my 8 year-old has weaponized it when she’s mad at me. I’ve lost count of all of the time she’s wished me dead since. Kids don’t always grasp the weight of their words – even at 13.
I don’t find this to be shocking, honestly. Seems like a typical 13 year old boy sounding off on social media. He just has a much bigger audience than most.
Sounds like any other 13 year-old boy…annoying and dramatic as hell. I don’t like some of the things he said, but it is what it is. I’m so glad social media didn’t really exist when I was 13.
I was thinking the same thing, I’m so glad I didn’t grow up in this era!
It’s bad enough for regular kids, I can’t imagine being the child of a celebrity and everything you do or say is news.
He’s 13. 13 year olds are a-holes. We all know that. Add social media and this is what you get. Having said that. His anger towards his grandfather who was physically abusive to him and his brother is justified. I trust that Kevin is handling it. People love to talk crap about Kevin but he’s been a consistent and good parent to those two boys.
Well we know he’s been consistent, but only time will tell if he’s been any good at it. He couldn’t even provide for them if it wasn’t for Britney’s money. Her money is also providing for his other four children and he’s okay with that.
I wouldn’t call this spilling the tea, more like a public online rant. I feel bad for Britney, I don’t think she is the brightest and she just seems in way over her head. And while I don’t think she overdid it with posting a lot of crap about her kids online, this is what happens when kids grow up. And this is the problem with all these celebrities on instagram exploiting their kids. Soon their babies are going to be teenagers with minds of their own, looking back at the online history and posting their own opinions.
I only saw one comment mentioning the “fan” telling him to kill his grandfather, and then Jayden saying he was thinking the same thing. Then he later tells his grandfather to “go die” and calling him gay and a d*ck. If that were my kid, I’d have some serious concerns about his mental stability. Everyone says he’s just a thirteen year old, so big deal. Kids this age kill others all the time because no one took them seriously. This kid has some issues.
Oh, trust that this is being taken very seriously. This kid is part of a California court proceeding. He has to be in therapy. Parents should welcome kids opening up so that they and the psychologists know what to do. The kids who don’t talk are the ones you worry about.
I was hoping this kid’s generation wouldn’t use “gay” as an insult. Guess that will never change. Also, some 13 year olds are amazingly sweet and kind. Not all are like this kid. He has major issues and shouldn’t be allowed on social media. Everyone keeps saying Kevin is a great dad. This boy was raised by Kevin for the most part and THIS is how he turned out? Not good at all. Kevin couldn’t even provide basic necessities for his kids if it wasn’t for all the money he gets from Brittany. I think these kids have toxic people all around them.
Yeah, I find it disturbing. People don’t hold kids accountable, and then they wonder why we have all the abuses of power when they’re adults.
Jaime never got to be just grandpa to those kids. He had to be Britney’s conservator. He was legally the one who had to say no and put restrictions. That had to take its toll on relationships.
Eta: the putting his hands on the kids is unacceptable.
Remember how quickly Jamie aged? I don’t condone the use of force/physical harm either but I’m sure he is a broken man. If anyone out there has tried to parent a mentally ill child (and I do believe Britney is mentally ill) then they know, too, how you end up halfway losing your own mind, too. The worry and frustration change you.
I wish this kid knew how to correctly use the word “literally”
13 is a rough age but none of the language used by Jayden in that post was appropriate. By 13 you do know the weight of your words and you do know what you are saying is offensive. The fact that he is just dropping this phrasing is beyond problematic. The lack of empathy and how he is monetizing his maternal relationship is jarring.
He’s 13. Pretty sure you all did stupid insensitive crap at that age. Please guys, again, get off your holier-than-thou pearl-clutching high horse. He was a toddler 10 years ago. He has a lot to learn about the world, as most 13 year olds do. It’s life.
Pretty sure half the posters haven’t stepped into a junior high or high school if they think this is bad.
Except Jayden Federline is not your average 13 1/2 year old. Britney Spears is one of the most famous people on the planet. So when Jayden shoots his mouth off on social media, it’s news!
Exactly. I saw some of this happening, so we decided not to allow our daughter to have a phone or any device with connectivity until she was in high school (and then b/c it was required for a lot of things at school).
Aside from controlling kids’ access to social media, which is–in and of itself–no guarantee they won’t be exposed by others, the most you can do is make sure you’re talking to them daily. They mess up. They say things they don’t mean and things they don’t understand. You have to talk to them and counsel them through EVERY single incident you learn about as a parent, and it’s tedious and very not fun.
13 is a volatile age. You cannot judge this boy’s character or mindset from social media posts. He could be preening for “cool” points with boys at school he actually despises but needs to fit in with for social survival. He could be trying to get attention and figured this was the best way to do it. There are a hundred reasons that make no sense to adults that he might say things on social media that do not reflect his heart or his true thinking.
Angry juveniles will say the most hurtful thing that comes to mind, lashing out, even if it’s absolutely not something they actually think or feel. If it’s the most hurtful, most offensive set of words they know to say…they’ll say it when angry or provoked. They might also say them to put up a tough front. If other kids think they’re hard-hearted and unfeeling, the thinking is that no one will see they’re sad, soft, and defenseless. This is adolescent 101 stuff.
That adults would see something like this and make any judgments at all about the kid’s character is appalling. When he’s 18, you can start that mess, but the five years between 13 and 18 are a vast chasm of development, experience, and maturity. He’s a boy with a messed up family and a very public set of parents. He’s been followed by paparazzi, and his childhood has never been normal. Give him a freaking break.
Cancel culture shouldn’t apply to kids who don’t even know who they are or what they believe in. Period.
Interesting to note that Sean and Jayden spend 70% of their time with Kevin Federline vs. 30% with Britney according to the terms of custody agreement and Jayden said he was currently with his Dad. So this Instagram rant took place on Kevin Federline’s watch. Jayden also claimed that his father didn’t care that he was doing the live stream — which sounds exactly like something a 13 1/2 year old would say. My question: where was Kevin when this was going on?
It was absolutely wrong of Jamie Spears to shake Sean last August. And it’s also wrong seven months later for Jayden to publicly state that he wants his grandfather to go off and die. Again, Jayden’s statements are magnified because Britney Spears is a celebrity.
I do hope that Britney continues to rest and relax. She’s earned it.
I know it’s wrong but the line “Yeah, he’s a pretty big d—k. He’s pretty f—king gay as s—t. He can go die.” made me do a chuckle ‘Awwww’. That is such a 13 year old boy thing to say, cause, like, it’s not even coherent, but it makes him feel like a badass for squeezing all those naughty words, plus a slur, into such a small space. I remember being 8 or 9 and calling my bus driver a ‘F*ck of a g*dd*amn bus driver, who eats sh*t and is a b*stard” and feeling pretty clever.
That being said, I hope the drama is resolved and he can learn to rein it in (or just use those words in front of his true friends and not on social media).
Exactly. I think the harshest comments here are from people who haven’t been around any teenagers lately and certainly haven’t raised one in the past decade. Life is a different universe for teens right now than it was prior to 2006 (smart phones became a thing) and really since the late 90’s when internet took off.
My generation was the last one to mess up in adolescence privately. If we said ugly things we didn’t mean or didn’t understand the ramifications of, nobody had a record of it that would ruin our lives 20 years later. Nobody has photographic, videographic, or email records of the stupid, mean, or thoughtless things we did. We got to be stupid teenagers and then learn and grow up without carrying a constant sword of Damocles over our heads that one day that stupid thing we did at 15 could get paraded out to ruin our lives.
It is unconscionable what we’re doing to young people right now. It’s not okay. At all. Human beings cannot be held to a standard of perfection that never relents with no second chances. They can’t.
If my kid said these things I’d be broken-hearted and angry. He’s a spoiled little idiot.
OMG! I must be an enabler, because I am thinking of following him just to see what he writes. I know that is terrible.