Dude, What about the Kids?

I'll take Avril

2004-06-03T22:01:00.000-04:00

Just flicking around TV and came across one of those live performance, interview type shows with Avril Lavigne. Love her style. She does the loud, brash, confident, honest, chick thing really well. Gives a strong impression of not caring but does it in a decent way.

Can't stand the anti-Avril. Britney. Great female role model - phoney slut. Yet my daughter (and wife) think she's terrific. Despite her lack of clothes, my son feels the way I do. What gives? There's something fundamentally female going on here (it can't be her soundtracked talent). Wonder what it is.

Blog Ads

2004-05-31T22:06:00.000-04:00

Was interested to see the Google advertising appearing at the top of 'Dude, What About the Kids?'. Clearly 'sensing' some previous posts (click on ad to see clearer), the ads are for 'Drinker's Check-up' and 'Alcohol Help Hypnotherapy'. The 'Related Searches' (smaller ads underneath) are for 'teenage drinking' and 'binge drinking'. Hmmm.

Funny, when I clicked on the 'teenage drinking' link, here's what came up: 'Teenage Drinking Leads to Bad Teeth'??!! To quote: "A study of the dietary habits of over 400 14-year olds in Birmingham found those who drank heavily were more likely to suffer from dental erosion." And be British. What's the legal drinking age?

The article goes on to say: "The threat can be minimised by good dental hygiene, including brushing the teeth twice a day to remove traces of acid."

Or, by stopping drinking.

Go to Bed

2004-05-30T09:30:00.000-04:00

Signs the kids are sleep deprived:
1. close car door with foot still outside
2. call me mom
3. put cereal away in fridge
4. sleep on any road trip over 2 minutes
5. keep missing first period

Signs the kids are like me:
1. close car door with foot still outside
2. forget who mom is
3. put cereal away in fridge
4. sleep on any roadtrip over 2 minutes
5. keep complaining that mornings are coming too soon

Maybe its genetic.

The Problem with Alcohol

2004-05-29T08:10:00.000-04:00

Technology aversion aside, our kids school throws a pretty mean fund raising auction, dinner, dance. It was last night. Under the stars in an impressive, funky, see-through tent-like structure. No idea how many people attended, but it was big.

I'm not a fund-raiser frequenter, unlike the friends we invited who go all the time. He works for a big financial institution so has the means and the need to be supportive. Thanks to experience, they're pretty good at it. Know how to scoop the bargains, especially on the silent auction stuff. The problem after a some wine and a few beers in a great setting is lots of crap starts looking pretty attractive (not like organizers don't know this). So here's damage at our table last night (5 couples) just in the open (not silent) portion of the evening:

Trip to Tuscany. Won by our friends in a poor strategic decision to keep the bidding moving. Problem. It stopped at their bid. Oops. Sorry dear!

Beer fridge and wine cooler. Impressive. Won by a fellow I'd never met before. Let's just say this: he's passionate about his drinking paraphenalia.

Trip to Whistler for 4 including accomodation and tow passes. Won with an enthusiastic round of "oh, damn what do you mean there's no airfare? I thought it included airfare.It includes airfare, right? Oh damn.

Trip for 6 to Switzerland. Including airfare. Steal of the night. Staying at a ski chalet in Adelboden, near Staadt. Won, with another enthusiastic round from poor losers of Whistler trip of "yours is better, ours doesn't include air fare. I thought ours included airfare".

Of course, table now talk of the room. Clearly big, rich, money-no-object spenders. Not really. Conversation around table more like "can't frigging believe we just bought that. Sorry dear, I guess we won't be getting the new fridge we've been talking about. We can still eat, right?"

Come on. Lighten up. Eating is over-rated. And drinking is dangerous!

My Kind of Problem

2004-05-27T21:35:00.000-04:00

Son just wandered into the office. It's after 9:30pm, he's got his camo baseball cap on, sweatshirt, jeans, backpack.
Me, dumb question: "You're going somewhere?"
Him, perfectly straight: "No it's grub day tomorrow."
Me, stunned: "You're...like...practising?".
Him, confident: "mm,hmm - and looking pretty fine."
Me, good recovery: "The backpack makes it."

I Know What I'm Doing

2004-05-26T08:30:00.000-04:00

We've got in-house tension right now re studying. Exams are coming up and it would be nice to know the kids are ready. Actually, one is. Never a problem for my daughter. She always works hard, is organized and knows how to prepare. At the risk of making a sweeping generalization, she seems to fit general observation that girls are just way better at this than boys.

Son on other hand appears to be right out in left field. Problem is, he's got decent marks. Frustration. If he's getting decent marks doing nothing, what would happen if he actually put some effort in? Again, at risk of generalizing, seems to fit other boys that we know.

Question is what to do. On one hand, as a parent I want him to get the right message. On the other hand, come back to belief that he'll learn best by figuring things out himself. Fear is he'll figure himself right out of future opportunities. Of course debating this is frequent stress with spouse. Son is missing most of the fun though...he left 15 minutes ago for 5 minute study break. Gone skateboarding.

no e-mail for us, we're private

2004-05-24T14:43:00.000-04:00

Kids go to private high school. Did the public thing until grade 11, then switched as much to try as anything else. Been really, really good. Biggest disappointment and frustration around technology.

Kids are tested all the time. Would be nice to know how they're doing long before dreaded report card. Lots of schools on web-based intranet where parents can stay in touch. Suggested if school wouldn't do that (duh, why?), perhaps they could send along couple of key marks by e-mail.

Can't be done. Still don't understand rationale. What can be done is having guidance teacher round up reports from teachers bi-weekly and call. Knew it wouldn't work minute I heard it. Too complicated. So, no idea how kids are doing. Meanwhile, just last week received 5 mailed pieces from school on everything from auction to sick student. You know, YOU CAN E-MAIL THOSE BABIES!

2004-05-23T21:21:00.000-04:00

"I did clean up my room"

underage surfing

2004-05-23T20:39:00.000-04:00

From a March 2004 study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University:

About 13 percent of all visitors to 55 alcohol company Web sites were under the legal drinking age of 21. The most popular sites among young people involving distilled spirits, beer and so-called “malternatives,” generally sweet-tasting alcohol products.

Bacardi’s site — www.bacardi.com — received about 59 percent of its visits from underage persons, according to the study. The two sites receiving the most total hits from underage users were both affiliated with St. Louis-based beer giant Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. — www.budlight.com and www.budweiser.com. Both received more than 90,000 estimated visits during the six-month study period.

The sites themselves generally require age verification, though there is no way to verify the truthfulness of the user.

No really, I'm a 40 year old alcoholic dog.

it's 4pm...

2004-05-23T20:30:00.000-04:00

Kids' Favorite Online Activities
Playing games 87%
Homework and conducting research for school 60%
Sending e-mails 53%
Watching videos, movies, or cartoons 36%
Listening to music 63%
Instant messaging 33%
Reading celebrity and music group information 27%
Reading about movies and TV shows 27%

Source: AOL/DMS

sell it to the girls

2004-05-23T19:53:00.000-04:00

Summary of a report by Jupiter Research on girls, music and the internet:

- the majority of teens spend less than $50 per month on entertainment
- girls spend 15 percent more on music than boys
- nearly half of online teen girls spend more than $100 a year on music
- girls are twice as likely as boys to research concert and tour information online.

gone in 60 seconds

2004-05-22T09:25:00.000-04:00

So, car is gone for the weekend. 17 year old has taken it to a friend's cottage. Didn't take long! Got his driver's license in January. Now, first long weekend of summer - gone. Left us with the mini-van.

With oldest, won't matter his age, everything is new. Poor/lucky daughter - by the time she does all this stuff we barely notice. Car is one of the scary ones. Perfect fit with expanding freedoms. More dangerous than carrying a gun!

Of course, wants his own car. And us to buy it for him. Not happening. Offered to pay insurance. Not as good as it sounds. Knew there was no way he'd ditch social life for hard work. So, it's us and the mini-van then!

toilet paper

2004-05-21T12:21:00.000-04:00

So how freak'n tough can it be to get toilet paper? Here's shopping list: toilet paper, bread, milk, razor blades (for me), apples. Here's what comes home: cereal, milk, apples, popcorn. Razor blades? "They're out of your kind." Toilet paper? "Couldn't find it." Did you ask anyone?: "No". Truth 2 days later after fair amount of haranguing about low skill level required to find toilet paper: "Actually, my arms were full and couldn't be bothered going back to get a cart." Now that's my boy!

new york minute too long

2004-05-20T13:33:00.000-04:00

Daughter is 14. Still big time into the Olsen twins, something that started way back at Full House. Pretty common for girls apparently. Son also digs them, but not for their acting.

Latest movie, 'New York Minute' has been out for a couple of weeks. Complete bomb. Here is a great review. To quote:

There is not a minute of it that makes sense or that resembles anything that would ever happen in the real world. Cause and effect are meaningless. There is no real humor. It is a dour trainwreck of a faux-screwball movie.

Stick with the calendars, straight to video!

starts with f, ryhmes with truck

2004-05-19T16:47:00.000-04:00

Interesting conversation over beers the other night re parenting styles. From very/too early have tried to treat my kids like adults. Bunch of reasons for that: 1)that's me - intuitively treat everyone like they're smart enough to make a good decision 2)believe what I read that by 7 or so, our kids have learned the fundamentals of what we're going to teach - right, wrong, good, bad, attractive, not-so-attractive (just kidding!)3)want them to be independent and see way too many parents wanting to be in control. Can't stand that.

So conversation kind of on point 3. Great guy in our group talking about he's all over his 14 year old for swearing. That's not me. Truth is, my kids can swear like troopers - and do occassionally around the house. They know how to spice a story with a well placed expletive, or express the ultimate in surprise, whatever. Further, we've never made a big deal of listening to rap music and have sat through our share of x-rated cd's. What's better? I don't know. Do know that despite not having it beaten in to them, kids know what's appropriate and what's not. They are independent. They aren't naive. And I think they have some respect for fact that I know, what they know and don't try to ram it down their throats. Is that better than the other way? From my perspective, yes. Will it matter when they're 40. Probably not.