Random thoughts of youth…

Teenager… The word for youth between the ages of 13-18. A word that made it’s debut in 1941 in Popular Science Monthly. Although, as early as the 1920’s parents were already beginning to allow their children more time to enjoy their youth before they experienced the challenges of adulthood, yet the word was first used in print in 1941. Honestly, I think there should be more time to be a child before you have the face the challenges of the “teen-age” years. Things change from one generation to the next so significantly that I’m just not sure how society keeps up with itself. Does that make sense? Not sure it does, yet for those over 40 I’m sure you can relate and understand where I’m coming from.

Since I spend a great deal of time with my “teenagers”, I am astounded at how old I feel. I seem to be in a constant state of disbelief at the things they know and the things I don’t. I mean, when in the last 20 years did red stop matching blue, brown shoes not match blue jeans, belts go out of fashion and jeans not fit around the waste. Who are the bands that my children download onto the family iTunes ap? For that matter, what makes it an ap? What is LOL? Is it “lots of love”, “lots of laugh”, “laugh out loud” or “lots of luck”? I just don’t remember things being so difficult to keep straight. Funnier yet is that my teenagers seem to be “in the know” since they understand each LOL. Really????

In November, I learned a new word and thought it was such a fun word with such a fun concept that for about 4 hours I dragged my daughter around Disney acting upon what I had learned. It was all fun & games until she decided her mother was becoming an embarrassment and told me she was done. What was the word? Selfies…taking a picture of yourself with your cell phone. Although, in my case, we did it with a Canon camera. At least most of them. I was shocked at how many people actually knew the word and laughed when we asked them to be in the picture or when we were setting the stage for our next picture perfect moment. What made our 4 hours challenging was the fact that I was in the wheelchair for most of them, so getting the right angle with a Canon was quite time consuming.

I was looking through pictures and thought you may enjoy seeing some of our selfies that we took that day… that is until the 14 year old stopped all the fun. Guess there are some things that don’t change from one generation to the next… Parents can and will embarrass their children! LOL..Just so you know, that means, Laugh out loud!

As the week wore on, under duress, brother and husband joined in the fun with mom.