How to Avoid Embarrassing Your Teenager
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE!
I’m sorry, but if you thought I had some wise words of wisdom about how to avoid embarrassing your teenager…I do not. I think it is impossible.
I remember being embarrassed by my parents when I was a teenager. My parents were wonderful people and I had a great life, but they were older than most of my friend’s parents and they just weren’t “cool”. Thinking back now, I realize that they were probably a lot cooler than I gave them credit for at the time. I find myself doing and saying many of the same things that they did. I also realize that they were right about so many things that I thought were just stupid when I was younger.
My kids feel the same way about me, at least they did when they were teenagers. I don’t dress cool, I am a big klutz, I love to sing loudly with songs on the radio, and I love Barry Manilow ( that embarrasses other family members as well, not just the kids). 🙂
LOOKING POOR
Just the other day, I was looking at Pinterest or some other DIY site. I found this adorable Halloween spider that was made completely out of trash bags. I started telling my husband about it and I could see the look of frustration on my son’s face.
Son: “Mom, PLEASE don’t make one of those spiders.”
Me: ” Why not?”
Son: “I love you, mom…but…”
Me: “But what?”
Son: “You are always trying to do things to make us look poor.”
He figured it out. That is my goal in life. I want to do whatever it takes to make my family look poor. Isn’t that everybody’s dream?
Me: “Why do you think that making a cute Halloween decoration makes us look poor?”
Son: “It’s not just that. You are always making things and putting them outside, things that make us look poor…like painting the mailbox, or making that big wooden sign.”
I painted our ugly black mailbox a light teal color, and I painted a second old mailbox the same color to use as a planter. I thought they looked great, original, and fun. Apparently, they make us look poor.
I got some old fence boards and painted a welcome sign, and a fall sign on the flip side…because I wanted us to look poor.
I remember when I was a teenager and I couldn’t understand why my parents didn’t buy a house in the “rich” neighborhood since they spent just as much money on our house that was on the other side of town. I remember it well. Recently my son has been asking why we can’t move out to the neighborhood that many of his friends live in..same neighborhood that I also DIDN’T live in. A few years ago, one of our nephews used to actually tell his friends he lived at a different address because he was embarrassed by where he lived. I get it, I really do. It’s a teenager thing, and I understand because I’ve been there.
BACK TO THE CONVERSATION
Me: “Did you realize that a lot of people in THAT neighborhood have wooden signs, etc. in front of their houses?”
Son: “Yes, but they BUY them. They don’t make them.”
Okay, then. There is no point in arguing about that. I’m sure that I will continue to embarrass my kids until they get to the age of awareness- that age when it suddenly “clicks” that maybe mom knew what she was doing. Either that, or until they are moved out and don’t have to put stupid DIY stuff outside of their homes.
Until then, I need to get busy and paint another fence board sign. 🙂 🙂
