To Be Strict or Not To Be Strict!

As I was thinking about my relationship with my parents, I thought of the famous quote from Hamlet, ” To be or Not to be”.  Yes, I have modified the quotation to fit my rambling.  My cousins, friends, and sisters have always adamantly believe that our parents were too strict with us when we were growing up.  To this day, we still cling to that belief like a lifeboat and we are not going to let it go anytime soon! Especially us the ones in our thirties, who were raised in a typical traditional Laotian household. I think it was worse growing up as a young Laotian Lao girl!  For example, we were not allow to have a boyfriend even if we were eighteen! Ages doesn’t matter in our household when it came to dating because your parents’ word was the law!  Breaking that law to us was worse than breaking any rules that govern society. Yes, I have to admit many of us  broke that rule by having boyfriends anyway!  However, we did not even enjoy having boyfriends because we were petrified of being  seen  talking to them, much less doing anything embarrassing.  This ever present fear, kept us physically distant from our boyfriends!  Either I am getting too old or I am too old fashion, but I think some young Laotian girls have way too much freedom when it comes to dating.  They pretty much can and do whatever they want without fear of reprisal!  Do you think parents should be stricter or not when it comes to their daughters?