Teenager Moment

Let me take a moment to vent about my teenager who I love so very #$%* much. *sigh* Ok, I was her age once and I remember dragging out of bed every morning and heading off to school, but twenty-one years is a long time and well maybe I don't remember it well enough to have sympathy for her. She hates it, hates school with a passion! Almost every morning the last couple of weeks she asks me if she can stay home, only once did I relent because I think she really didn't feel good. So every morning we argue before she leaves, which makes both of our days start out poopy! Her poor little sister is usually caught in the drama and so also has a wonderful start to her day...not.

Why? Why do I make her go? Is it for the education? *rolling my eyes at the public school system* Do I really hate her and just want to torture her? (that's what she thinks) Maybe I want her to suffer the pain I did in school, no that can't be it. Kids are so cruel to each other, that is the main reason I considered home schooling them.

The bottom line is... everyday of her whole adult life she will need to get up and go to work and sadly that is the best thing school does for our children. With the exception of a few brilliant, caring teachers who give a damn, school is merely conditioning for later life. Just a way to teach our kids how to cope with the day in day out blahs. In our society today with all of its modern conveniences, we just don't have enough at home to provide that kind of conditioning. Most of us don't live on farms where we can send teenagers out to do chores for hours on end, help plow a field or bring in a crop. Our basic survival now comes out of a tap, a grocery store and is handed to us. There is no cow in our back yard crying to be milked or hungry squawking chickens to feed. As long as a teenager knows how to operate a microwave they will not starve!

I think back to when I was a kid and remember all of the things that my parents did, (that at the time I hated) that contributed to my strong work ethic and I am grateful now. At the time getting out of bed on a Saturday morning to help rake leaves instead of watching cartoons really sucked, but now I understand my Dad and I hope I will be able to give my kids what he gave me. What I really wish I could do is take my teenagers to a third world country where school is a privilege and truly give them a sense of how much they have to be grateful for!

Anyway, any suggestions on how to get a burned out kid to school would be more than welcome!

Teenagers! Arggg!

So today my very pretty fifteen year old had her lip pierced! Of course she went to a shop where I had to give my consent. Crazy parent? Maybe, but here I am with this great kid who tells me everything and actually comes to me with all the crazy questions a teenager has, and so what do I do when she asks if she can mutilate her body? I say yes. *sigh* And so here is where I justify my actions, to myself, to her and hopefully purge my soul through a blog...LMAO sorry couldn't keep a straight face on that one! Oh ya and God help me when MY parents see it!

A friend told me today that raising a teenager brings out the hypocrite in all of us and I tend to agree. At fifteen I had a mohawk, piercings, leather mini skirts...the whole bit and yet I beg her not to do the same? When I look back, I wouldn't change any part of my adolescents. I am grateful to be alive with all the crazy shit we pulled, but I wouldn't change it because it helped make me who I am. She has friends who pierce body parts in basements and end up with horrible infections because their strict Mormon parents won't allow them to get piercings. Face it teenagers will end up doing whatever they want, regardless of what we want!

See to me, it is like telling kids not to have sex and then not educating them or providing them protection from STDs and then these stupid parents are surprised when they have pregnant teenagers with venereal diseases! I managed a blood bank and believe me there is nothing beautiful about telling an 18 year old they have AIDS! I would rather have her be honest with me and not scared to talk to me. And yes I would hand her a box of condoms rather than raise her baby! I have morals and she knows where I stand, but I refuse to be naive and hide from this new world we are raising our kids in. Arm them, don't tie their hands.