For three seasons Riley Matthews has pretty much been the perfect child. She respects her parents, doesn’t cause trouble, and even the few times that she has allowed herself to straw she would fess up. Cory and Topanga have considered themselves lucky, but teenage rebellion isn’t something any parent can avoid. This week Girl Meets World tackled the inevitable parental task of ‘crime and punishment’ when your child decides to rebel. The stage which causes the rift between mother and daughter isn’t as important as the semantics used to resolve the situation. They were almost more impressive than Auggie’s attempts to be the good child in the face of his sister’s outburst.
Riley and Maya’s weekend binge-watching is interrupted by…Monday morning. You know, that day when we all have to go to school, go to work, actually do things which are productive. For Riley this means going to school then going to the bakery directly afterwards to help her mother with the afternoon rush. Riley acts very out of character and refuses Topanga’s request. Did I say request? I meant order. Why are people afraid of Topanga? I would think Cory rocking back and forth on his desk would be Exhibit A, at least for this series. See Boy Meets World episodes for further evidence. For the reason that every teenager learns to respect their parents-unmitigated fear. Now Riley makes two separate points to defend herself. On the one hand, she may be right on being overdue for a little teenage rebellion. It’s a perfectly normal thing. Teenagers having rights? Haha, that’s funny! Excuse me while I search for a teenager who thought that and actually won…I’m back! See how quickly and abysmally that search failed? Even Maya isn’t going to help Riley on this one. Auggie is just happy to rub in that he’s the only good child in the house now.
Now let’s review the words you never, ever, EVER use in the same sentence with your parents: Maturity and Entitlement. If you were to make a semantic argument just on those words alone, they would be categorized as the antithesis of each other. So Riley doesn’t go to the bakery, which results in both her, and Maya, being grounded for three weeks. Cory does try his best to temper the situation, but his lesson in surrender gets skewed when he mentions diplomatic solutions in war. A) There is no diplomacy in a dictatorship. B) In order to move from a Dictatorship to Democracy, you have to be able to make sound, reasonable arguments which make sense to both parties. (Seriously, adults could learn from these children’s lessons). When you are a child, which by definition means you depend on someone else for 100% of your living expenses, your rights to even say words like entitlement go out the window. It’s disrespectful, plain and simple. Yet Riley continues to push her “point” that she has been a good child up until now, so one rebellious moment should not earn her a grounding. Cue the “If you live under my house, you live by my rules”, “Maybe I shouldn’t live in your house” battle.
Riley runs to Maya’s with nothing but the clothes on her back and $17 in her pocket. The reality of her grand plan is much less appealing than the idea of it. Whether Riley is living on top or ends the day in complete misery, the one person she wants to tell is her mother. Topanga needs Riley just as much as Riley needs her. There’s no worse feeling for a mother than to be distant with your child. The two eventually reconcile, and Riley realizes that she’ll always have her mother’s love even when she acts out. Though there’s no getting out of that grounding, because she earned that fair and square.
Did Girl Meets World hit the mark with their take on teenage rebellion?
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