It doesn’t matter if you are a straight-A student, a star athlete or the student body president we all get grounded the same and sometimes for the most ridiculous reasons.

“Subtitles, I got grounded for leaving the subtitles on the TV,” senior Lydia Keasey said. “I got grounded for a month.”

According to Texas-based psychologist Carl Pickhardt grounding teenagers for a week or longer is not a “sound idea.” Days are much more effective.

“Teens who are grounded longer than just a few days risk their social standing, which can have negative long-term effects,” Pickhardt said.

Why is long term grounding a bad idea?

Long term grounding is essentially the same as house arrest, according to social worker Carole Banks, a writer for the Empowering Parents website.

But do parents listen? Of course they don’t.

“I got grounded for two weeks because I took my mom’s car to the scene of an accident,” sophomore Natasha Davis said. “I was trying to save and life and I get grounded! Does that even make since?”

No, it does not (the person in the accident was fine by the way, she made a full recovery).

“Being grounded for a month is more likely to make your teen figure out how to get by until he’s free again such as sneaking phone calls before you get home from the office or logging on to the Internet when you’re in bed,” Banks said. “He’s not learning to change his behavior, he’s just learning to survive until he isn’t under lock and key anymore.”

Not all groundings make us feel like we are prisoners; there are perfectly rational reasons to get grounded.

Senior Justin Brown gets grounded for his grades which is understandable, but he also got his car taken indefinitely for turning in one late assignment.

It is hard to argue with our parents about the groundings they have their minds made up.

“I got grounded once for leaving the garage door open,” senior Nathan Head said. “Isn’t that stupid? I mean I was in the house.”

In the iconic words of the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) “There’s no need to argue parents just don’t understand.”