Alright, so listen up, I’m gonna tell ya ’bout these tough guys and drama queens. You know, kids these days, they somethin’ else. This fella, Mark Gregston, he’s been dealin’ with ’em for like, thirty-eight years, more than 2,500 years he says. That’s a whole lotta youngsters! He runs this place, Heartlight, a kinda school-thingy for kids who are havin’ a tough time.
Now, I ain’t got no kids of my own, but I heard ’bout this book he wrote, “Tough Guys and Drama Queens.” Figured I’d see what the fuss is all about. I mean, everybody’s always complainin’ ’bout their teenagers, so maybe this fella knows a thing or two.
See, what he’s sayin’ is that sometimes, us parents, we mess up. We think we’re doin’ the right thing, but we ain’t. Like, you yell at a kid, thinkin’ that’ll make ’em listen, but it just makes things worse. It’s like pourin’ water on a grease fire, just makes it bigger, you know?
- He talks about “tough guys.” These are the boys, usually, all closed up and angry. They don’t talk much, just grunt and stomp around.
- Then there’s the “drama queens.” The girls, mostly, always cryin’ and makin’ a big deal outta everything. Every little thing is a catastrophe, the end of the world!
But Gregston, he says it ain’t that simple. Sometimes the tough guys are just hidin’ their feelin’s, and the drama queens are just tryin’ to get attention. It’s like they’re wearin’ masks, pretendin’ to be somethin’ they ain’t. And it’s our job, as the grown-ups, to see through them masks.
He’s got all sorts of ideas ’bout how to handle these kids. He says you gotta be patient, gotta listen, gotta try to understand where they’re comin’ from. It ain’t easy, let me tell ya. Kids, they can be stubborn as mules. But if you wanna help ’em, you gotta put in the work. You just can’t give up on them.
One thing he said really stuck with me. He said that teenagers, they ain’t adults yet. They’re still figurin’ things out. They’re gonna make mistakes. They’re gonna be messy. And that’s okay. We gotta let ’em be messy sometimes, gotta let ’em learn from their own screw-ups.
Now, I ain’t sayin’ I agree with everythin’ he says. Some of it sounds a little too fancy for me. But I do think he’s onto somethin’. I think he’s right about the masks. I think he’s right about bein’ patient. And I think he’s right about not givin’ up on these kids, no matter how tough they are, or how dramatic they act.
This Heartlight place he runs, it’s a place where kids can go to get help. They live there, they go to school there, they get therapy there. It’s like a safe haven for ’em, a place where they can be themselves, without havin’ to wear those masks all the time. Sounds like a good thing to me.
So, if you’re havin’ trouble with your own tough guys or drama queens, maybe you should check out this fella’s book. Maybe it’ll give you some ideas. Or maybe it’ll just remind you that you ain’t alone, that other folks are goin’ through the same thing. And that, sometimes, is all you need to keep on keepin’ on.
I reckon that’s about it. Just remember, kids are complicated. They ain’t always gonna do what you want ’em to do. But they’re still your kids, and you gotta love ’em, even when they’re bein’ a pain in the neck. And maybe, just maybe, if you listen to what this Gregston fella has to say, you’ll figure out how to get through those tough teenage years without losin’ your mind.
At the very least, maybe you’ll get a good laugh or two along the way. Because let’s be honest, teenagers, they can be pretty darn funny sometimes, even when they don’t mean to be. And sometimes, laughter is the best medicine, ain’t it?
I heard his book has been helpful for many folks, not just for the parents, but for teachers and counselors too. It’s a long road to raise a young person, a lot of bumps and turns, you just have to take your time and guide them along the way.
Tags: [“Parenting”, “Teenagers”, “Adolescents”, “Family”, “Communication”, “Drama”, “Tough Guys”, “Drama Queens”, “Child Development”, “Mark Gregston”]
