An Awful Situation

StudiousMaximus
Fri, 04 Nov 2011 22:24:26 +0000

My parents are extremely religious. They emphasize their religion and activities related to it hugely, and I frequently find myself spending upwards of 8 hours in church-related activities every week. If I miss any of these activities, they call me sinful and take away my electronics.

The largest issue I’m having is that of the early morning church classes they expect me to attend every day. These classes last 45 minutes and conclude a full hour and 15 minutes before school starts (effectively setting back each of my school days by 2 hours and robbing me of precious sleep). Furthermore, I have little faith in the religion, so I feel like I’m squandering time that could be better spent on getting a good rest. Last week was the end of the quarter, so I had a multitude of projects and assignments due. These projects kept me up well past 3 AM a few nights, and I just couldn’t bring myself to wake up at 5:30 AM on three of the days. Accordingly, my mother promptly took away my laptop (which I purchased from working over the summer) for an entire week. This is just one example of the stringent measures put in place by my parents regarding religious involvement.

I would understand if my parents were restricting my access to electronics in response to some drop in performance at school or behavior. However, I currently have straight A+'s and work very hard on a consistent basis. I feel as if I’m being totally cheated and unappreciated, as they frequently remark that “Academics mean nothing in the eternal scheme of things.” They essentially devalue everything I work for and accomplish, which really doesn’t help after a long night of arduous assignments.

What should I do? I no longer wish to attend this early-morning class (which I have expressed to them) and feel that it is simply a waste of time. I envy my friends who are able to sleep until 7:30-8:30 AM every day. However, my parents threaten such harsh punishments that I can’t just refuse to attend. I recently told my father that I never want to go to the class again. In response, he argued that I’d also never want to live without electronics and friends for the rest of my high school career. It’s just awful!

Does anyone have a suggestion for me regarding what I should do/say? Keep in mind, I’ve already expressed most of the above opinions (except for the lack of faith), but my parents insist that none of my complaints matter because their religion is far more important than anything I could be concerned about. I just wish I could truly have the freedom of religion and choose not to practice what they believe in.