A different perspective...

Just a few random things that have been floating around my head in the last day or so...

"V" is back on. And really it's just as creepy and squirm-inducing as it was in the 80's. I shouldn't know that since in the 80's I was WAY too young to be watching it. I know this because there was a scene where a woman ate a bird that I couldn't get out of my head for years. Likewise, there was a scene where a young girl was scratching her arm and ended up scratching her skin off to reveal the reptile underneath! For months I was afraid to scratch my arms. I don't think my parents were neglectful exactly, just much more lax about what children should or shouldn't see. The irony for me is that I remember friends not being allowed to watch anything other than "G" rated movies and mocking them for it. I remember one friend in particular whose mother was very focused on showing her only educational shows and would only let her own educational toys. As her peers, we gave her a very hard time about it. But now, her mother is my role model!

Likewise, yesterday in my mom's bible study, they were discussing student driving when I came back from the restroom. I am not sure how the topic came up, but I caught the tail end when the mothers of the high schoolers were lamenting that teenagers who are new drivers are struggling to learn and so they are slower on the roads and their reaction times are slower. One mom said she had a sign to put on the back of the car that said "Student Driver" and the other moms all agreed and wished they had signs also to warn other drivers to be patient with their kids. With guilt, I remembered my own mother making me the very same laminated sign and insisting we use it whenever we practiced driving. I hated it, but I know I will be making the very same sign in 15 years.

In the same bible study, the discussion of Prom came up as one of the local high schools had done the "Mock accident" to remind students of the dangers of drinking and driving. Many of the moms were stating they thought it was a good demonstration and wished all of the high schools would do something similar. I explained that our high school had done the same demonstration for Homecoming, but not Prom as we were not allowed to drive to the prom. We had to meet at the school and take school buses to the prom and post prom. As a teenager, this was extremely irritating to me. Particularly when spending a couple of hundred dollars on a dress, shoes, hair and make-up only to be loaded in to a school bus. As a parent, I am hoping there will be similar safe guards in place when it is my child's turn to experience the teenage ritual.

Clearly the old adage "you will understand when you are a parent" continues to ring true.