Sunday night I had to work a partial overnight shift in order to test an upgrade that was being performed on our system at work. I have done many of these and rarely do they take so long and/or go so late into the night. Because of the high profile nature of this upgrade, we agreed to perform the tasks from inside the office also instead of staying at home which meant that I had the commute of a normal work day after my shift. The hour that it took me to drive home left me with some time to think. I couldn't help but realize that it was only 3am and just a few short years ago I had voluntarily stayed up this late to party, drink, etc. Now I was having difficulty keeping my eyes open.
Thinking about this difference led me to realize that there is now a list of things that I am too old for. Shortly behind staying up late on the list is a spot for 'understanding teenagers'. Granted I haven't been a teenager for more than 10 years but I don't remember being nearly as ridiculous back then. I remember thinking that I was probably annoying to older people, but nothing like today.
I am a stepmother to a 13 year old girl and a 15 year old boy from my husband's previous marriage. Having teenagers allows me an unrestricted view of the weirdest world ever. A world that includes descriptive words like 'scene',hair that I think is too long and pants that are too tight.
When I was a teenager, boys wore pants that were loose. I distinctly remember my vice principal at school taking rope and tying pants up of boys who decided to wear them too low during the school day. Sometimes they were admittedly too loose or too low but that seems to now pale in comparison to what is happening now. These days it has become cool for boys to wear pants that are SO tight that you can't help but think that they must be uncomfortable. And apparently it's also cool, according to Target, for boys to wear bright neon colored skinny pants as well. I don't think that seeing your chicken legs is cute in any stretch of the imagination. I am too old to get that.
Teenage females seem to have received the message that boys have the skinny pants thing down so they don't need to wear pants anymore. Corry and I have been to the mall numerous times in the last few months and every time we go I am shocked and amazed at the amount of young girls wearing SHORT skirts, tights in lieu of pants, stripper high heels, or shorts that look like underwear. Where are their parents? I know that there is probably some of the 'I am going to change clothes at the mall' type of thing happening, but it seems too prevalent for that to be 100% what is going on here. I don't think that young girls need to wear a burkah or anything like that but perhaps we, as a society, should educate our daughters that you can still wear clothes and be attractive. Have we lost all need to preach some type of modesty to our kids? This kind of behavior though is drilled into our heads since our children are babies. We spent a few minutes today looking for a bathing suit top for Isabella today at Target. We bought her a swim diaper there a few weeks ago so we just needed a swim shirt to go with it. We are very picky about bathing suits. I'm not a believer that you need a modesty suit or anything like that but I am not down with a string bikini (or a bikini at all for that matter) for a toddler. Why does that need to happen? Why does a toddler need a string bikini? If you don't believe me that it happens, check out any baby section of any store. I will save the over-sexualization rant of our children in this day and age for another day...
Next - I don't know what 'scene' is. I don't know if it's describing a person's personality or their manner of dress. I tried googling and got lost in a world of brightly colored hair and people who wear too many bracelets so I gave up. I don't know when this word came about but I know that I am too old to understand what it means. Based on how my teenager uses the word, I would imagine that it has something to do with a style of dress and keeping of your hair, etc. He had hot pink hair when he was calling himself 'scene' .
I want people to cut their hair. This doesn't just apply to guys. I don't have a lot of room to talk right now because Corry is currently trying to talk me into cutting like a foot off of my hair, but I digress... There is nothing more agitating than trying to have a conversation with someone and they can't talk to you because they are too busy pushing their bangs out of their face or flicking their long unkempt hair around. If that was my kids, I would shave part of their head in the middle of the night. I am too old to think that is cool.
I never would have thought that I would write anything like this. As a young adult you have this view of the world and your impending aging like you are going to be 'cool' forever and that you are not going to age like your parents or other older people in your life. I have come to the realization over the last year or so that I am more like my parents than I ever thought that I would be, and I appreciate them much more now than I ever have before. I am a grown up and I would rather be the person that I am today, even if that is boring, than understand anything on this page.
-Sara
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