Challenge: Complain With Us

This is how we talk to our friends, and how they generally respond, when something bad happens to us.

David: I failed the stupid English test.
Josh: What?!
David: I know! It's ridiculous! The teacher thought I was cheating but couldn't prove it, so she took off extra points for really stupid stuff to get back at me when I told her I wasn't looking at Andrea's paper.
Josh: Dude, that blows.
David: I know. I hate Mrs. Reyolo now.
Josh: Teachers suck. Go report her or something.
David: Yeah, I'm going to the principal. She should get fired. (insert teenage angst)

But this is how a parent normally responds to the first prompt.

David: I failed the stupid English test.
Parent: What?!
David: I know! It's ridiculous! The teacher thought I was cheating but couldn't prove it, so she took off extra points for really stupid stuff to get back at me when I told her I wasn't looking at Andrea's paper.
Parent: But did you study?
David: Duh, didn't you see me stay up late last night?
Parent: I'm not too sure you should have slacked off on studying for it. That way, you might've not made those mistakes.
David: She took extra points off for them! Yeah, I accidentally switched the gerunds around, but she still shouldn't have screwed me over like that!
Parent: In that case, I don't think you should have acted like you were looking at Andrea's paper.
David: But I wasn't!
Parent: You did something to make your teacher suspect you, though. Go talk to her.

When something bad happens to us and we actually (for once!) talk to you about it, we want you to complain with us, not complain at us. As you can see, David and his friend both complained about Mrs. Reyolo, the evil English teacher. At the end of the whining session, Josh made a passing comment on doing something about the injustice, and David, still bitter, agrees that he should.

But when David talked to his well-meaning mother, something different happened. The mother, eager to teach David a lesson on why he brought doom upon himself, doesn't properly sympathize with her teen. Instead, she jumps straight into trying to find the root of the problem so that they can fix it. Unfortunately, when a teenager comes to their parent to complain about some problem, most of the time, we actually want you to complain with us about how terrible life is before you try and make life better. We want you to relate to us, because we'll take advice from people who we believe have gone through similar experiences.

So here is the challenge:

When your teen comes up to you, whining about how life isn't fair, whine with us. Tell us a story about how when you were in high school, one of your teachers hated you so much that he switched the chemicals you were working with so that you accidentally exploded the science lab. And then you got back at him by blowing up firecrackers under his desk (Okay, maybe not that part.) Make sure that the first five verbal exchanges you have with your teenager are pure complaints: "Life sucks", "That's totally not fair", "No matter what day and age, teachers always suck", etc. After that, gently prod in some advice, like Josh wisely did. The best way (in my opinion, though it may change person to person) to do this is to casually mention, "If that happened to me, I'd _______. Do you think that would work now?" That way, we'll be much more open to your ideas, and we might actually listen to you this time. =]

Good luck on the challenge!