I'm sure performative empathy and telling him how his life is so bad is so much more helpful. It certainly won't lock him into a cycle of self loathing and never being able to move on.
I'll give him some slack, because he is 14 and his situation is awful.
But he himself is saying he is already a man because he raised himself, and then immediately goes into "nothing is my fault! " That's where he drops from struggling with a bad situation to clearly not looking for solutions, while already sealing himself off from improving because he considers himself "matured."
Teenagers aren't some mystical retarded entity whose words mean nothing and their minds unknowable. I know people want to think that, to infantalize them, but they are usually having real thoughts and setting foundations for adult thinking.
I'm sure performative empathy and telling him how his life is so bad is so much more helpful. It certainly won't lock him into a cycle of self loathing and never being able to move on.
Just cut him some slack I'd say. He's basically pointing out lack of mentorship for young men. You can't discredit that in good faith.
I'll give him some slack, because he is 14 and his situation is awful.
But he himself is saying he is already a man because he raised himself, and then immediately goes into "nothing is my fault! " That's where he drops from struggling with a bad situation to clearly not looking for solutions, while already sealing himself off from improving because he considers himself "matured."
He doesn't really know what he's saying though. He's 14.
Teenagers aren't some mystical retarded entity whose words mean nothing and their minds unknowable. I know people want to think that, to infantalize them, but they are usually having real thoughts and setting foundations for adult thinking.