“I was just trying to help her out,” Rachel York says indignantly moments after her daughter Dani storms out of the room. “I don’t know why she has to be so dramatic.”

Rachel is just one of a long string of mothers attempting to share what she calls “constructive criticism” with her daughter, only to have it fall onto ungrateful ears. “I just don’t get it,” York laments. “I simply told her that the outfit made her look like a cheap hooker and that nobody would want to take her to the prom let alone date her if she bought it. But I said if she wanted it, I’d get it for her…she’d just have to get the size up so she could grow into it.” She shrugged her shoulders and added, “Oh well. Teenagers will be this way.”

The younger York, Dani, has a completely different story. Though she was too upset to speak clearly at the moment, her tearful moans and rapid-fire speech were nearly impossible to decipher, she was able to text adeptly even in her hysteria. She sent us the following explanation for her mood, “she is always lik dis-i hate it! i feel lik sht. dog sht. lol.” Despite the ‘laugh out loud’ added to the end of this text, Dani did not seem to be laughing. She texted once more, “i wnt 2 b lft alne. 2 b free. ugh! rofllmao!”

Drama between mothers and daughters, as portrayed so clearly between Dani and Rachel, has been going on for centuries. The chances of us solving the age-old mystery of why children are so ungrateful to their parents during their teenage years will remain unsolved.

Until then, Dani sits angrily in her dressing room, refusing to try on new clothing as Rachel sits patiently waiting for her next opportunity to express her opinion.