Houston, we have teenagers.
It is really interesting having people here that aren't raised the way that you would raise them, and have different cultures and habits. This works both ways. I have had to think about my responses before responding. I have had to think about myself at that age and try to remember what it is that I felt at that time. I have tried to remember what it was like to be in another country and not really know the area, or the culture, or barely anyone.
As predicted and expected... boys are calling. That is fine. I totally rocked two boy's worlds in an impromptu interview. I asked them to 'friend me' on their my space and their facebook accounts. I asked them what type of person would I find on those places, versus who was sitting at my table. I found out what their GPA was like, etc etc etc.
I am of the opinion that we can drop the girls off at the movies, and then we will pick them up at the movies, but they will not go with these boys. I caught them in a lie.
ha.
But I am not so stupid as to think that I should keep the girls under lock and key either. That will only inspire them to find a way to get out.
I have also been watching some shows about my space and face book and the willing self exploitation of girls. The violent subculture. The sneakiness. Now, I believe kids should have a private life, etc etc etc.
But, when one of my girls friends me on one of the pages and they have a profile picture looking right down the front of their shirt. And I don't mean subtly. I mean right down her shirt. Not cool. But I don't want to come across wrong. I don't want her to be ashamed of her body, I want her to understand that this is
not good for her self image. She is already super aware of herself in what I think is a critical way.
Plus, different table manners... like picking out all their favorite vegetable out of the community dinner salad. Eating all of that vegetable out of the fridge so that by the end of the week when I would like some, there is none there. Standing in front of the fridge and foraging. Not wanting to contribute to household chores (and we only have chores on one day a week... Saturday, Everyone on Saturday does one hour of housework... We don't ask for anything during the week, just that they do their homework.) Dragging their feet through the grocery store at a snails pace so that it can take forever. Not completing the one chore that you give them. etc etc. Teenagers. The cool thing is that I don't overreact. I just chill out, and communicate straight.
So, we encourage their independence. We encourage their desire to eat healthy, we encourage them to do well in school. We encourage the heck out of them. It's tough. But we love it.
Posted by hawkie at February 3, 2008 09:17 PM