<p>Your mom is totally cool.
All that food, drink, and a ski trip, you shall be proud of your mom.
Oh and have a great trip with your family and friends.</p>
<p>Truly Yours,</p>
<h2>duh from CC.</h2>
<p>it might be just me. despite i have long been a ski-lover, my parents had never gone to near the snow with me.</p>
<p>yet, every mom in this forum, be careful about all that caring, food, and whatnot. i can not tell you where it is, but there is a line between, you know, loving(+being cool) and spoiling.</p>
<p>A hunk of raw meat on the end of a sharp stick works for my S. Once a day, I shove his bedroom door open, jab the meat in through the crack, hold on tight, and after the animal sounds die down, I retrieve the stick, and shut the door as quickly as I can. :D</p>
<p>I always get a gret kick out of reading your post. Thanks so much for today’s moment of comic relief. You will always be a cool parent in my book </p>
<p>along the dork lines… When I get home, take off the badge hanging around my neck, and exclaim that I am de-geeking, my kids assure me that there is no way I can de-geek ;-)</p>
<p>my kids and I enjoy doing things together - I don’t know if that is cool or not. We go to a music festival every spring/fall, occassionally shop for used clothing together (goodwill, salvation army, the cheaper the better), and enjoy going out for sushi.</p>
<p>I don’t keep the house stocked with food. This week, my 16yo, asked me if I was going to make dinner anytime in March, and he was serious.</p>
<p>Person after my own heart ;). Tell, him wait and see how much dinner you make when he goes off to college. I only “cooked” (a full meal -not salad in a bag and a roasted chicken)twice since September - Thanksgiving and Christmas.</p>
<p>Sluggbugg,</p>
<p>Humor has saved a many a parent from jail and the mental ward. :D</p>
<p>Now that Greensleeves is MIA, I can post - I am NOT cool, in fact DD says most people think I’m the “second wife” or divorced Mom because I’m not around much, and neither of my children resemble me on a superficial (that is kid type) examination - no one knows whose Mom I am.
Now DH is the coolest - when he drives on Boy Scout trips, the guys fight to see who gets to ride in his truck - my kids think it is a little embarrassing because he acts so weird, but secretly they love it because he is cool.
Interestingly he is strict and a good disciplinarian, but he teaches teens all day long and just seems to know what makes them tick.</p>
<p>I am definitely not considered cool by my kids. In fact they are amused by how little I know about popular culture and will periodically ask me questions just to see if I know about some new band or comedian. S thinks that H and I are nerds because we are quite content to spend a quiet weekend evening reading, when he can’t wait to go out to see his friends. And when we go out, we do nerdy things like go to lectures…</p>
<p>We do gain points, however, with S’s poker buddies, since I bring out food for them. S is very conscious about what he eats - no junk - so we don’t have too much stuff around, but I can usually find some pretzels and cookies or something, for which they are always most appreciative. </p>
<p>My D (now 24) has lately started to tell me that I am cute… She doesn’t mean in terms of looks but rather things I do or say. Can’t quite explain it but here’s an example: we were out one evening - H, D and I - and we wanted a bite to eat. She suggested we go to a Happy Hour at a fancy restaurant. I guess I knew about Happy Hours, but never really considered going to one - see, I am not cool. I just figure I really don’t need a huge plate of barbecued wings and a beer, much as I might enjoy that. </p>
<p>But I loved the Happy Hour menu, that we could order tea or a soft drink, and that we could eat quite amply and well for such reasonable prices. D said she does Happy Hours often - the “poor” 20somethings best strategy to eat well for cheap - and she could give us a list of the best Happy Hours in town. I immediately told H that we will be eating early a lot next year, when we are empty nesters. Then I mused jokingly about whether I should get S fake ID, so he could come to Happy Hour with us, until he left for college! At which time D proclaimed, “Mom, you are so cute!”</p>
<p>H is definitely considered ‘cool’. On my dare, he bleached his hair platinum blonde on his 40th birthday. The fifth grade boys went wild over that. He wears ultra-cool Japanese suits that the boys admire. S2 wore one to a formal party last month. He was the envy of the group.</p>
<p>He routinely organizes pick-up football games and basketball games for groups of fifteen to twenty boys–and has done so since the boys were 8 or 9. Then he lets them tackle him. Then he has pizza delivered to the field/court. He can wrestle most of them to the ground in three minutes. </p>
<p>I am considered uncool by my boys because their friends like to settle in for a big talk when they visit. I get S’s hairy eyeballs but their friends say, “Hey-- I let you talk to MY mom!” If I didn’t express strong opinions, my cool factor might go up because boys don’t worry me. I have four brothers. I went to architecture school when the ratio was 280/50. I have spent 25 years on construction sites where the ratio is 50 to 2000/1. We have taken thirty boys camping (twice) and canoeing (once). We have also taken four to five boys with us on vacation (four times). Their friends call the pizza joint from our house, on our nickle, so much that the pizza joint data bases think all those cell phones live at my house.</p>
<p>Anyway, I don’t aspire to be ‘cool’. I just want to be competant. </p>
<p>You only get two parents in life. Thousands of cool friends and aquaintances, but only two parents.</p>
<p>cheers-
Where’s that quote from?? I can’t find it.
And I will go out on a limb here, but I think most of the parents on CC, from what I’ve read, would qualify as competent in my book. Thats why its nice to reach for those other attributes.</p>
<p>I’m not sure if I am considered cool with son’s friends. How would you know? I don’t sit around talking to them, but I am nice, friendly and welcoming…that’s about it. I think I earned major cool points by allowing H to erect a backetball court in the driveway several years ago.</p>
<p>My son and about 8-10 of his neighborhood friends would play daily and the neighbors went wild…complaining about the noise, bouncing balls, etc (the block we live on super quiet without the boys on the court). So, then they started calling the police and we had to have a community relations officer get engaged to help, I became the advocate for the kids and the court. We set rules (only 1 ball at a time, no cursing, playing stops when the street lights come on, no yelling, no ball on Sundays)…and I’m quick to shut down a game if they break any of the rules. And now that my S and his friends are much older, they don’t use the court much…and a new, younger generation of boys has made a home in my driveway (most are the younger brothers of my son’s friends) …and they know the rules and are good about sticking to them. In rturn, I get plenty of warm hellos and help with groceries, etc. And, as spring rolls around, the battle with the childless neighbors will begin again, for sure. </p>
<p>I think it might be different with daughters…my daughter and her friends are always comparing their mom’s hair, clothes, etc. </p>
<p>When I pick her up from school I get the once over from her little friends as I’m standing outside of the car holding the door for her (as her friends stand in line waiting to be picked up)…my D will then get into the car and pass along the comments - “mom, susie likes you hair, melanie loves your shoes…I wish you would have worn that pink lipstick - and those earrings are for teenagers, not moms(she always has a suggestion)”…</p>
<p>So, I could be a cool mom to my first grader and her friends if I just dressed like a Bratz doll each day…the sleazier the better!</p>
<p>I am cool because I drive my Ds everywhere along with their friends. My teenagers friends like anyone who drives them around and plays rock music</p>
<p>I would play rock music but they don’t like it loud!
My daughter and her friends straighten or press their hair so they don’t want the windows rolled down.
What is the point? No loud music & the windows rolled up?
Youth is definitely wasted on the young, I feel like I am driving around my grandma ;)</p>
</p>
This parenting thing is hard! Humor makes it just a little easier.<br>
If I didn’t express strong opinions, my cool factor might go up because boys don’t worry me. I have four brothers. I went to architecture school when the ratio was 280/50. I have spent 25 years on construction sites where the ratio is 50 to 2000/1. We have taken thirty boys camping (twice) and canoeing (once). We have also taken four to five boys with us on vacation (four times). Their friends call the pizza joint from our house, on our nickle, so much that the pizza joint data bases think all those cell phones live at my house.</p>