Beyond the surface

So, made it through the hot weekend. Friday I left work and headed home and Tim, Will and I went out for dinner with a friend of Tim's. Sam worked and then ran like the wind to hang out with friends as the summer is finally coming to an end and her last summer as a high schooler draws to a close. Shes been going and blowing as much as she can while working and sassing but she'll have lots of good, fun memories before buckling down for the long haul. Which is called the real world.

Bless these kids hearts. I would NOT repeat anything about my younger years. And why the hell would I want to? Between the ages of birth to third grade it's easy as pie. Mom or dad get you up, you eat, get dressed and play until its time to do it all over again. But then, then comes the hard part. By fourth grade you have cemented as best you can relationships with the same sex and if you're a girl, you best enjoy those friendships while they last cause after that well, you're screwed. Boys get noticed, if you're a boy, girls get noticed as other than friends. Then the games start being played and you never know whose the friend or the enemy. Then by Junior High all bets are off and its everyone for themselves in the game of catch the mouse. Which in Junior High terms is the girl or boyfriend.

Parents at this time in a kids life are biting nails, spitting knives and trying to hold onto sanity needed for High School. Why? Well I'll tell you. At this time in a girls life it's one big beauty pageant. They need the best clothes, the most expensive shoes, hair accessories, YES, and even the best backpacks, folders (who it their right mind would NOT have a Justin Beiber folder?) and even the best pens. They start getting worse in being selective in everything. Lunch boxes? Forget the brown bags, those are so 20 years ago and if they can't have that pricey one of a kind lunch box with all the food they crave then you best slap them a twenty and pray to the lunch God that it stretches until Wednesday.

Did I mention cell phones, Ipods, highlights and fake nails? These days if you're above the age of TEN you are so not in the in crowd. You really think as you chase that boy across the school play ground he'll actually give in and come talk to you? Oh that was so 30 years ago. These days shes at one end, hes at the other and the only thing shes trying to find out to catch him is his cell number so she can text him. No more is it Him calling her at home. Why when you can sit in class and test your parents, teachers and principals patience and spend more time not getting caught on your phone than what the class topic for today is? And as parents we are sitting in our cars, at our jobs or hell, we could be in the dang bathroom when that call from the school comes. And as of last year the fee to get things like cell phones and Ipods back when taken up were 15 dollars every. single. time....

Then...yes...They're all in high school. They pull out the big guns now. Keep in mind that everything previously listed is now expected and they will also require cars and trucks. Parents at this time are crawling on hands and knees to the banks all the while the loan officer stands on the other side of the door and flips the "sucker, ur screwed" sign on and locks the doors. We put them through drivers ed and then they expect to own your vehicle. If friends are going to do cool things they need to be there and it would NOT be in our best interest to even say that we could take them and pick them up. Of coarse, they are NOT in Junior High anymore.....

Money, money, money gets shoveled out. For sports events, extracurricular activities, food, gas, and yes, we even pay for some of their friends that oops, they forgot their money and then there's everything that isn't school related. Need I compile that list too? My hand is cramping from all the typing. Boys, or at least mine through the years are a little less expensive than the girls. My cash flow is steady in buying lots of food, plenty of milk and lots and lots of GAMES. He still wears what I pick out mostly, never really carries his phone unless I MAKE him and friends? Just like 20 years ago as we did most days, he leaves them at school. He's a kid that would rather harass his family then hang out with his friends. Oh he did on occasion through out his younger years but now that hes a teen, well, puberty set in and just leave him to his own devices. Which normally consist of the remote, the milk cup and the game controller. We find it easy to coax him thought, to do things. Throw in a quick trip for some chips and queso or Shipley's and he doesn't care where we take him, lol.

Now that i've chatted about all of this, let me add that during all this "I want, I want" the parents are passed out some where in the house. In a locked and guarded closet with a cattle prod shoved up under the door just incase someone trips the trap and ventures too close....kids, need I say more?