It’s a tough moment. My mother is now very quick to let me know I’m boring her. We’ll be on the phone, and I’ll be droning on, and she just says: “OK – I’m done”. And the conversation is over. Your parents are supposed to think everything you do is remarkable and captivating. Remember when the whole house stopped, just because you used a toilet correctly? But now, you tell ONE story that doesn’t have a point, and your parents are mentally checked out.
Children go through the same thing in as teenagers: they realize their parents are boring. Before hormones kick in? Your parents are gods. They have money and cars and are tall. Then you hit 13, and realize the opposite. Oh, my parents are just two examples of millions of middle-aged people, who mainly like things from 20 years ago and fall asleep in chairs. It’s an important phase: if you didn’t start to think your parents were boring, you’d never want to leave home.
Maybe boring your parents is the true last step in becoming an adult. When you’re a child, you can NEVER be boring to parents. Because you’re always just one bad decision away from accidentally killing yourself. Parenthood is basically a very cute suicide watch. Mothers and fathers have to be hyper-vigilant to keep their kid alive. When you bore your parents, it’s a true sign that the vigilance is over. They succeeded. They made a thing that can live on its own without dying. But, frankly, that’s not that interesting. When you’ve pulled Lego out of a choking child’s esophagus, hearing why he prefers Tumblr to Twitter just isn't the same rush.