You've probably read some articles criticizing 13 Reasons Why and may be reading this blog post to find out if it will be against watching it as well, so here is my spoiler: no it's not. It's not about that.
I now see the campaign against watching it is aimed at people in the same age group as the characters. When it comes to their emotional turmoil I go back in time and remember mine. It doesn't bring me down although I simpathize with the characters deeply. Like anybody else I was hurt by careless and inconsiderate actions of others when I was younger, but luckily I had a small circle of great friends who are actually in my life to this day despite the distance. What got to me though, especially on episode 6 was how young people cut their parents from their lives and sometimes will lie straight to their faces. But I'm not judging adolescents, I've been one, I lied and concealed too.
However, this series has left me a a bit wary of becoming a parent of a teenager. I understand it's developmentally appropriate for nearly college goers to want to separate from their parents and have their own identity, but it's still painful to watch those parents try and try to reach out to their children and get nowhere when they're clearly struggling. To see the parents suffering, trying to get close to their kids and have a door closed in their face is heartbreaking.
Finally, although 13 Reasons Why couldn't potentially make me want to take my own life when met with difficulties of secondary school students' lives, it's a scary reminder of what could lay ahead for me as a parent. It's like a hard push to work on open communication with my daughter who luckily is at least 7 years away from entering puberty. Hopefully I have plenty of time to continue to make her feel comfortable talking to me about her worries. This is all I want.
Note: I hadn't written for this blog in two years, so watching this much talked about series has served a good purpose to me. But I'm still a bit rusty, so forgive me. I thought I'd rather write on a public platform for those who are interested in the topic than to discuss it with people who hadn't seen it.
