I’m going to play devil’s advocate here.
Most of us have had a grandparent who has been somewhat off the mark in terms of their criticism. It often is a generational thing where in their day people were expected to behave in certain ways.
Back when I was a teenager a young girl dressed up was known as “jail bate” and while I don’t necessarily agree with the term I do think we’ve got to a point now where young girls are so body conscious that they make themselves up and go all out when actually at 13 they should still just be entering teenage hood. But instead they’re on TikTok and instagram and wanting to look like the latest influencer.
In terms of having a boyfriend, I think that most of us had what we might term as a “boyfriend” at that age even growing up. But while back when I was younger having a boyfriend did generally mean holding hands, I had my first kiss at 13 but didn’t lose my virginity until I was 21. But these days relationships are far more sexualised, and it is sadly not uncommon for 13 year olds to be having sex or at the very least to have started experimenting.
So while you might think it’s all just holding hands and innocent, I do hope you’ve spoken to her about safe sex and contraception. My mum outright asked me if I should be on the pill when I had a bf at 14. She didn’t think I was a prostitute or acting like one, but teenagers are teenagers, and it’s naive to think that they don’t end up going down that route and finding out the hard way that they should have been careful.
If you had a sister who fell pregnant at 15 then I would hope you have learned from your parents’ mistakes.
People are quick to jump to wanting to cut people out of their lives because of what they say or how they say it.
This is how we have a generation who are growing up without the ability to manage conflict, without the ability to judge people on their own merits, because they’re never exposed to people who aren’t just like them. My grandparents had some odd views, I didn’t grow up scarred by them, I grew up realising that everyone is different, and that the ability to roll your eyes is priceless.
And most teenage girls do go through a stage of being little bitches. And most teenage boys go through a stage of being moody twats. They grow out of it, but that doesn’t make it not real at the time.