Teenagers don’t have the market cornered on “How embarrassing!” –If I remember correctly, it’s in those terrible twin years that kids start to find anything and everything parents do to be a horrifying embarrassment. Suddenly, the way we dress, speak, comb our hair, and feed the dog all bring on waves of humiliation for our children. My kids became convinced that not only did we all wake up one morning and I had become completely ignorant overnight, but I was also purposefully setting out to ruin their lives with my nonstop embarrassing ways.
But, I want to ask the question, who’s really embarrassing who here (or is it “whom”?)! I’m the one who’s been subjected to temper tantrums in the grocery store and impromptu “games” of tag in the library; I’ve taken all those calls from teachers, principals and neighbors–and now they want to talk about how I dress?! Okay, well, maybe I want to talk about how THEY dress!
When my middle daughter was a couple years younger, she used to have a phrase she used all the time–usually referring to anything an adult did–she’d say, “That’s so rude!” with all the indignation a thirteen-year-old naturally exudes. For about a year and a half, I took to referring to her as “pot” as in “Isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black?” As the poster child for snarky and rude, I found her denial and projection to be humorous, fascinating and wearisome.
I’m still a big embarrassment to my fourteen-year-old. He’s just starting to feel the full effects of his mother’s dorkiness–while m daughters are starting to realize I just can’t be helped. But they’ve all three still got plenty of teenagers behaviors I would rather pretend didn’t exist. I can’t wait to sit down with them in another ten or twenty years and hash out exactly who was embarrassing who during these volatile years!