Story - You Don't Trust me!

Welcome to my world! Now that my 16 almost 17 year old is in college she
thinks she is grown up. It's hard to tell her she isn't unless she wants to
join the military. Those are her choices. I joined the military and
amazingly I grew up real fast.

--
Starlia Klopman
www.klopmanstudios.com


"Kathy N-V" wrote in message
. giganews.com...
Thus far, my kid has been an unusually compliant teenager. We rarely
argue, and she is very good at talking things out with me. But last
week, VJ predicted that Manda was going to give me a run for my money
the moment I said she was too young to do something.

The child must have been reading VJ's mind.

MIT has a fall seminar program for high school students that runs
over a long weekend. As normal classes are in session, there is no
dorm space, and out of town participants are being directed to a
block of rooms in a Boston hotel.

Manda proposed that she and a friend share a room at the hotel, "to
save the trouble of taking the trains back and forth."

Nice try. No way on this Earth am I letting two fourteen year old
kids stay alone at a hotel, especially where the rest of the rooms in
the hotel will be filled with other teenagers. Without supervision.

This did not go over well. "You don't trust me!" bellowed Manda, in
that irate tone of a Person Who Has Been Unjustly Treated. "I know
how to behave, and I have been in zillions of hotels. You just think
that we'd invite boys into the room."

Actually, no - I hadn't thought that. Thanks for bringing it up. I
won't let two fourteen year old kids stay alone in a hotel because
it's a stupid idea. It has nothing to do with trust.

Then I got the "When you were fourteen, you got to do whatever you
wanted!" line. Not true. If "whatever I wanted" included working two
jobs and going to school, then it was a lot more accurate. If she
was willing to take on such a life, more power to her.

After some pushing back and forth, Manda acquiesed. I told her that
if her school offers a foreign exchange program, we can see about
that. We are also sending her to an away from home science program
next summer. She wants to know if she can "bum around Europe"
between high school graduation and the beginning of college. I told
her to get a job, start saving, and that we'd talk in four years.

I do believe we're in for a bit of a bumpy ride.

VJ, please - don't make any more predictions! ;-)

Kathy N-V

Speaking for those of us with younger daughters, I'm getting scared!

--
Jerri
www.beadbimbo.com

She wants to know if she can "bum around Europe"
between high school graduation and the beginning of college. I told
her to get a job, start saving, and that we'd talk in four years.

I do believe we're in for a bit of a bumpy ride.

My deepest sympathies, Kathy! I'm hearing about the planned "bumming around
Japan" trip myself. After the cross-country US drive, of course. DD and
"minions" in an RV....gods help us all!

And of course, she pulled out the "but Pop-pop went cross country when he
was 17...on a *motorcycle*!" Yes, dear, and it was 1934 and a very different
world. (I still have some of his souvenirs, including a menu from the famed
Hollywood & Vine drugstore.) Oh, and my Mom didn't help by mentioning that I
went to the UK when I was 19, on my own.

But, but, but.....this is my baby!!!! (And she knows she'll have money, too,
cuz my Mom is a blabbermouth.) siiiiigh

Toasting Kathy with a virtual cocktail,
KarenK

Snipped:
I also need to clear something up in Manda's mind: my freedom was
mostly the freedom to work like a slave. Sure no one was watching me
take the bus to any of my jobs or to school, but it's not fun, and
it's not an adventure to have that much responsibility at that age.
Let me tell you, having a fun adventure was the last thing on my mind
when I was counting change to get enough money to keep the
electricity on.

Lest anyone get the idea I never had fun, I'd like to disabuse
everyone of that notion. I had lots of friends, and I had lots of
fun and wouldn't trade those experiences for the world. It's the
flip side of that equation that was terrible.

Kathy, how about you let Manda read the above exactly as is. It says a
lot--and it says it clearly.


--
~Candace~

Orphan Beads ~low cost and bartering for the financially challenged beader~
http://snipurl.com/6s4t

Montreal sounds like a great idea for her!

--
Jerri
www.beadbimbo.com

Considering that my oldest pulled the "It's MY LIFE, MOTHER! I will do
what I WANT!" ploy when she was four, I am already scared.

-Kalera
http://www.beadwife.com
http://www.snipurl.com/kebay


Beadbimbo wrote:
Speaking for those of us with younger daughters, I'm getting scared!

HAHAHAHAHA! Sounds familiar... what freaky litle people we spawn!

-Kalera
http://www.beadwife.com
http://www.snipurl.com/kebay


Kathy N-V wrote:
On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 20:08:13 -0400, Kalera Stratton wrote
(in message ):


Considering that my oldest pulled the "It's MY LIFE, MOTHER! I will do
what I WANT!" ploy when she was four, I am already scared.


Someone I know was two when she started complaining bitterly how
unfair it was that she was never given a turn driving. By the time
she was four, she had informed me she was moving out (to my mother's
house!!), because she wasn't going to live with all my rules.

When I offered to help pack her things, she backed off.

Now that she's older, she knows that going to my mother's would not
have caused any reduction in rules or chores. heh, heh, heh.

Kathy N-V

Considering that my oldest pulled the "It's MY LIFE, MOTHER! I will do
what I WANT!" ploy when she was four, I am already scared.

How about telling your mother -- when you're 2 -- "YOU are the baby and I AM
THE BOSS."
~~
Sooz

Yeah, but in your case it was TRUE, LOL!

{{{{{{{{{{{{{Sooz}}}}}}}}}}}}}

-Kalera
http://www.beadwife.com
http://www.snipurl.com/kebay

Dr. Sooz wrote:
Considering that my oldest pulled the "It's MY LIFE, MOTHER! I will do
what I WANT!" ploy when she was four, I am already scared.


How about telling your mother -- when you're 2 -- "YOU are the baby and I AM
THE BOSS."
~~
Sooz

Isn't it awful? SHEESH

Yeah, but in your case it was TRUE, LOL!

How about telling your mother -- when you're 2 -- "YOU are the baby and I
AM
THE BOSS."


~~
Sooz