KEARNS – Adolescents all over the world have had times where they underestimate their parents and sometimes even forget and don’t realize all the responsibilities and tasks that they do for them. By watching movies from the point of view of a character acting out a mother or father figure and listening to other people’s stories having to do with their parents might help out & give them a quick reality check.

As time goes by nobody can deny the fact that younger generations have changed a lot over the years. With things like protesting, fighting for justice and equal rights, and making the world a better place, most teenage boys and girls are making a difference by doing what they believe is right and making planet Earth a better place step by step. However, there is one main reason why perhaps the young is being able to do what they do, and that is their parents.

Not only are parents one of the main reasons that kids wake up everyday and help lots of students become better people whether it’s by getting them to school and having a career, giving them something to eat daily, a word of advice, teaching and helping them with daily tasks, or supporting what they do in general, but they also work for an insane amount of hours simply just to get a roof on their heads and make sure their kids are well-fed and healthy. Even so, there are quite a few people who seem to forget about everything that guardians do for them on a daily basis.

As the days go by and kids grow older, they reach the thinking point where they start to disobey their parents and do things that they know they’re not supposed to do, sometimes even for a lifetime.

To remind younger ones how hard their parents work everyday, there seems to be more appreciation towards them using movies, books, or having someone highly recognized talk about their guardians, hoping that children all over the world realize that parent would sacrifice a lot of themselves for their kids, but it could still gather some more attention.

One example that could be brought up, is the movie “Searching”. “Searching” is about a father and his daughter who recently lost the mom due to cancer. In the film, David Kim and his 16-year-old daughter Margot Kim live their busy lives between work and school which leads them to mostly communicate through Face Time and text. Until one day, David realizes that Margot didn’t come back home the night before from a study group session. He then tries contacting her through messages endless times and then decides to contact the police, and a full-on determination to find his daughter starts to rise.

Appearing to be a never-ending quest, he decides to log in to her social medias and contact everyone Margot has encountered with recently if they have any idea where she could be. The deeper he tries to dig, the more clueless he is, which is when the tension and fear starts grow. With the help of detective Rosemary Vick, more tasks are being done with the thought of finding Margot in mind.

However, as David is going through his daughter’s information, he realizes that he didn’t know his daughter at all. This is what technology can do to everyone and the people they’re close to, it can get other closer but also drift them apart.

Fast forward to the ending with tears, anger, anxiety, confusion, hopelessness, and relief. More secrets are coming out of the dark and more dots are being connected, followed by plenty of unexpected and shocking twists that lead to David finding out where his daughter was.

Not only does this film make us feel what the dad himself was feeling, but it has a very contemplating lesson in the end. Regardless if people have been in this situation or not, it teaches others that although parents in general aren’t perfect, they would do whatever they could to protect their child and make sure they’re okay once they find out they’re not. Which is what a lot of kids underestimate and let slide or sometimes even completely forget.

However, not only are parents some of the most hardworking people, but a lot of the time they are also endlessly supportive towards the dreams of loved ones including their children. Former first lady Michelle Obama told the people at London’s Royal Festival Hall that since her parents let her ask questions, they encouraged her to use her voice and speak up for those who can’t. “Instead of doing what we often do to girls who are feisty, which is try to put that flame out, to douse it, because we’re worried about them not being lady-like or being bossy, they found a way to keep that flame lit because they knew I’d need it later on.”

“I think that with a movie like ‘Searching’, it teaches kids and makes them realize that parents are humans too”, says Stephanie Roman, a mother of seven kids who works almost non-stop along with her husband Jose Roman and makes sure that her children know that they have to put themselves in other people’s shoes every now and then. “Parents aren’t perfect and we’re still learning as we go too, don’t ask me what it feels like to have a 16-year-old daughter if I don’t have one yet. As life goes on, I’m still learning how to take care of my kids as they grow older like me.”