Are we being honest?

blossom
Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:14:32 +0000

GFG, as Ann Landers used to say, nobody can make you feel bad without your permission.

So don’t give permission.

The wunderkid from my children’s middle school is recovering in an institution from a suicide attempt. The kid who was several grade levels ahead of everyone in math still hasn’t graduated from college (my kid has been out and working for 3 1/2 years… not to brag, but to help you calibrate the elapsed time.) The brilliant kid in HS cut a deal with the DA after he was arrested for turning his parents backyard gardening shed into a crystal meth lab.

You need to rise above what everyone else is thinking or doing. It would be great if raising kids was an algorithm where you followed steps A, B and C and came out with the perfect adult. But it’s not. I watch the kids mine grew up with and there are slacker dudes who are burning up the world and brilliant kids who have yet to launch. So ignore the comments and forge ahead.

Many of these parents of HS kids have absolutely no idea what they’re in for. If you thought adolesence was rough- wait till the rocky “mental health at-risk years” begin at 20-24; wait till your brilliant daughter or niece wants to drop out of college to get married and wait tables to pay the fiance’s loan on his truck; etc.

So chin up and don’t listen to the comments; take the “kick me” sign off and go read a book.