I attended my senior prom with my then-boyfriend, and let me tell you, it sucked.

At my small school, generally only seniors attended prom, and underclassmen were only able to go if they were asked by a senior at our brother school.  Why, I have no idea, but I sort of wish I had gone as a junior because then I might have thought twice about going as a senior.

I had a great dress, six couples shared the cost of a limo, we went to eat at an expensive restaurant before prom (even though we were technically being served a meal at the dance) and unbeknownst to me, my hair looked like hell.  I found this out later when we got our pictures back, and it probably would have ruined my night if I’d known.   Thank you, best friend, for not mentioning it because you knew I would obsess about it all night.

Anyhoo, I think I paid a total of $300 for everything, which included dress, shoes, boutonniere, fake nails, glitter hairspray, (hey, it was the 80’s) and my share of the limo. My parents paid for my dress, I paid for everything else.  My at-the-time boyfriend paid for the tickets, his tux, my corsage, and the dinner.  He probably paid close to $300 as well.

So, a total of around $600 bucks for a night we spent arguing and sitting miserably on a couch in the lobby of the hotel.

This is why it boggles my mind that anyone would pay upwards of a thousand dollars, or even close to two thousand, for one night in high school.

Trust me kids, in the long run, high school means nothing.

I don’t know if my son will still be homeschooled by the time he reaches prom age, but you can bet that I won’t be shelling out anywhere near that amount to send him there.

During the recuperation period from my surgery, I am not ashamed to admit that I read some Young Adult Fiction.

The Hunger Games, to be precise.

I had bought the e-book versions because a) I am a geek, b) I just had to know what all the fuss was about, and c) I was sort of hoping that the Munchkin would be able to read them also.  And any writing that falls into the YA category is vetted by me personally before he gets to read it.  I don’t think he needs to stumble upon some description of two teens having sexual relations at the age of 9.  There will be plenty of that in the years to come, I’m sure.

Uh, OK, I was just really distracted by that last sentence and reminded of my friend who has vowed never to talk to her son about sex.  Ever.  She cannot wrap her mind around the fact that our sons will be hitting puberty sooner rather than later.

Anyhoo, I burned through all three books in about four days, between snoozing sessions.

And now, pathetically, I cannot wait to see the movie.

Yeah, all the 14 year olds and I will be lining up at midnight.

And here I thought I had escaped all that by not reading any of the Twilight books.

A high school in Cincinnati, Ohio is basically bribing their students with gift cards to attend school and do so on time.

You know what?  Bribery works.

Any parent will tell you that.  At least, any honest parent.

The thing is, research shows that when you repeat a certain behavior so many times, it actually becomes a habit, rather than something you are forced to do.

Since the school is facing high truancy rates, extremely (almost criminally so)  high dropout rates, and a high poverty rate among their student population, they have my blessing.

Listen, y’all. I DO NOT know where the days go. One day it’s Friday and the next day it is Monday and I haven’t done what I’m supposed to do. I promise it will get better.

56% of you are very self-reflective in answering that you very well might be a snob.  Which, to be honest, means you probably are.  Not that I love you any less, of course.  21% vehemently deny the accusation, while 8% answer with an overhwhelming affirmative.  The rest of you refused to answer of the grounds of self-incrimination, and that also means that you are a snob, without question.

I would say that I am for some things, and not for others, if that makes any sense.  There are things that many people care about very deeply that I couldn’t give two figs about, and there are things that I think are important that nobody thinks of twice.  So I guess that means yes.

A school in Pennsylvania recently banned Uggs during school hours.  Not because of their blinding ugliness, but because they were being used to store contraband such as cell phones.

The United States has the highest teen birthrate of any developed country.

I’m sorry, but that’s inexcusable.

I’m going to lay a lot of the blame at the feet of the woefully inadequate “abstinence-only” programs that are basically a waste of everyone’s time and money.

Teenagers have sex.

Get used to it.

Give them all the tools they will need, including access to birth control, knowledge of sexually transmitted diseases, and you’ve got a pretty good shot at keeping someone from getting pregnant.

In the article linked to above, a quarter of the teens said that their partner did not want them to use birth control.  Say what?

Teach your kids that if their partner doesn’t want them to use birth control, then that partner isn’t worth being with.

Humans are sexual beings.  That includes teenagers.  That ESPECIALLY includes teenagers.  It’s like nobody ever remembers being a teenager.

What is wrong with people, anyway?

Last week I asked about children and their exposure to news, and 68% of you responded that it depended on the child and their ability to comprehend what was happening.  I suppose this is where parents are free to make the decision that they feel is best for their children, but I honestly didn’t see the need for my 8 year old to know about a mass murder.   Maybe I was wrong, but I’ll take my chances on that one.  15% said about third or fourth grade, and 8% said middle school. 

Today I am curious to see what you think about the newly crowned Miss America.

Raincoaster’s got a naked Anthony Bourdain…

How to keep your teens from drinking…

People find blogs in the weirdest ways…

Chichimama doesn’t really mourn making that last school lunch…

Marketing to kids is scary stuff…

It takes a Canadian to say it so eloquently…

Candy is tired…

Yes, the fashion shows are lovely and exciting, but it’s easy to forget who is actually on those runways.  It is all too common for designers to use tweens and teens to model their clothes, since I’m guessing that an as-yet fully developed body has the right structure to show off their designs.  Let’s pause for a moment and ponder the wrongness of that.

We’ve come a long way since the 80’s supermodels such as Naomi Campbell and Cindy Crawford, both of whom were grown women in their heyday, and sported very curvy bodies (at least as far as the fashion world is concerned, not the real one, which is a story for another time).  But for some reason designers abandoned that look and now push a much more emaciated looking model as perfection.

Take this statement from my new fave model, Coco Rocha, which reads in part:

But this issue of model’s weight is, and always has been, of concern to me. There are certain moral decisions which seem like no brainers to us. For example, not employing children in sweatshops, and not increasing the addictiveness of cigarettes. When designers, stylists or agents push children to take measures that lead to anorexia or other health problems in order to remain in the business, they are asking the public to ignore their moral conscience in favor of the art.

Surely, we all see how morally wrong it is for an adult to convince an already thin 15 year old that she is actually too fat. It is unforgivable that an adult should demand that the girl unnaturally lose the weight vital to keep her body functioning properly. How can any person justify an aesthetic that reduces a woman or child to an emaciated skeleton? Is it art? Surely fashion’s aesthetic should enhance and beautify the human form, not destroy it.

 

Her entire statement is wonderfully written, and worth reading in its entirety.

As always, the consumer is the one with the power of the pocketbook, and it should be up to us to swing the pendulum back in the proper direction.  Because teenagers are not the ones buying these clothes, even though they have been deemed the proper vessels to showcase them.