Argh....teenage daughters!

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#1 Post by **SuzyCentri** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:02 am

Now, you teenagers out there just chill a minute. I'm speaking as a mother, to the other mothers (and dads) out there. I need a little empathy.

OK, so this weekend I take one of my 14 year old daughters to Subway. I'm standing there trying to figure out what in the world I can eat. I'm still suffering a bit with my bottom fronts. I don't tell my children this, because....let's be honest....they don't care. They are not concerned with my boring life. Their lives are so full of boys, movie, clothes, school, volleyball...blah, blah, blah. They are good kids, and would probably baby me if I asked, but I try not to whine, because I figure that's a bad example, right? But I digress.

So I finally decide on a roasted chicken, on white, with mayo. And I ask for a knife and fork. My daughter gives me this look:

Yeah.

First, she thought we were going to eat it "to go". Yeah, right. Like I'm going to eat a sandwich in the car, while driving. Those days are O-VER. It's hard enough to eat it at a table, right?

Then, she cannot believe that I am going to cut up my sandwich. "Mom, it's soft, what's the big deal?" she says. "It hurts", I reply, "and it's just gross picking bread out of my braces". Thirty minutes later, she is tapping her fingers on the table, asking me if it's worth it.

And, I have to tell you...I'm thinking it's not. Not worth it. Nope.

Then she got her hair cut, with red highlights. And the world was a better place.

The end.

#2 Post by **jennielee81** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:00 pm

I feel your pain!!!

...and your joy

I am the mom of a 16 year old daugher, 19 year old son, and 11 year old daughter

#3 Post by **BraceFace13** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 1:55 pm

Red highlights? That's a little over the top...

#4 Post by **Attagirl2** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:18 pm

I don't have a 14 year old daughter, but I have a husband who occasionally just can't understand my need to dissect my food. My sympathy to you!

#5 Post by **Nikkiekoala** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:35 pm

I have an 11 year old (going on 16) daughter who just now gave me grief for using a knife and fork to eat my french dip sandwich! Than I read your post. I don't feel so wierd now. I am having a bad tooth day. Just one tooth on the bottom right side front is really hurting. Didn't realize it until I went to bite into the sandwich OW OW OW OW. Like you I got the total eye roll from my daugther. Oh well, gotta love 'em.

#6 Post by **rooroo** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:53 pm

Anything you do against the norm is complete embarrasment for her. I was 14 not terribly long ago (ok, almost 10 years ago) and I remember the embarrasment I felt around my parents at certain times. Don't worry. By the time she's 22 she'll be over it.

#7 Post by **caringiscreepy** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:46 pm

Well I'm a teenager (18 ) but I sympathize with you, I used to love eating at Subway but I never go anymore because I just can't sink my teeth into the sandwiches without being in pain ... then having my boyfriend go "Errr you've got a huge chunk of bread stuck in your front teeth". I find Subways so hard to eat

I don't blame you for asking for a knife and fork!

Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:45 pm

Red highlights.....yeah, I can understand that. I'm 13 and tomorrow I'm dying the tips of my hair purple or pink.

#9 Post by **Echo** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 6:17 pm

My 14 year old son thought it was ridiculous when I got braces (he is braced himself). It was really hard for most people to understand why I got braces, because my teeth were pretty much straight. I was just trying to fix some things that were starting to change before they got too bad. I'm 34, and I would rather have braces now than later.

#10 Post by **bbsadmin** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:53 pm

My middle schooler always gets this line from me:

"Looks like we're having a side dish of attitude today at this meal!" LOL.

"MOM!" she says.

Fortuantely my kids didn't give me too much grief about cutting up my hamburgers and my pizza when I had my braces. I told them, "Hey YOU JUST WAIT until it's YOUR turn!" Neither of them have braces but probably will in a few years. My youngest had an expander for a few months and she actually said to me, "Mom, how did you put up with the braces for 3 years?" It was a humbling experience for her to have that expander and realize what I'd gone through...

#11 Post by **bbsadmin** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 8:59 pm

metalmouthdramalicious wrote:Red highlights.....yeah, I can understand that. I'm 13 and tomorrow I'm dying the tips of my hair purple or pink.

My daughter hugged me when I told her she could do that to her hair....when she gets a few years older! Hey, I was a "punk" in college. Nothing shocks me. I only insist that she never gets piercings in weird or unhealthy places. We share music albums. I introduced her to The Killers album and she begged me to buy the latest Green Day album for her (which I had wanted anyway). She just doesn't want me blasting "my weird 80s music" in front of her friends....or trying to sing along, LOL! She was shocked...shocked I say...to be informed that EVERY SINGLE SONG in the film Sky High was an 80s remake, and that I played the originals on my college radio show! Hee hee hee!

#12 Post by **spragers** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 9:02 pm

I have no children (yet) but there will come a time wne you'll be back to eating Subway subs the right way. I actually ate a footlong sub over the weekend, all in one sitting

#13 Post by **marcTO** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 2:04 am

BraceFace13 wrote:Red highlights? That's a little over the top...

shut up

#14 Post by **river** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 5:41 am

Hi,

subways is really great but i only went for the first time a few months before my braces was put on

, now i have braces it really hard to eat in public because of the bread, plus i have the meatball so they get stuck everywhere

.

still i now get a takeout from subways so i dont care it they get stuck because i can brush my teeth before anyone see's

#15 Post by **SuzyCentri** » Tue Aug 30, 2005 6:39 am

OMG, I laughed so hard at some of your replies! I knew I would find others that have been through this! Whew, sometimes the hormones are just bouncing around my house like a pinball machine. And the best thing we can do is just duck.

metalmouthdramalicious, I see that you are from Northern Missouri. We are, too. The left side.

BraceFace13, your aren't kidding, that IS over the top, for me. But it isn't my hair, or my self-esteem. It's all part of letting your kid explore their own individuality, within certain acceptable and chaperoned boundaries. And hair grows. If she wasn't such a good kid, and if she didn't appreciate my willingness to try harmless things like highlighting her hair with red, then I wouldn't be as willing or understanding. I've always taught her to look on the inside of people, because the outside is very rarely an indication of a person's true nature. And she tends to take care of people that are hurt by the words of insensitive children that are unable to see past their own ideas of right and wrong, rich and poor, pretty and ugly. My other daughter, also 14, doesn't always look past the trappings of money and looks. And some of her friends so hateful and ugly to her that I can't stand it. Sometimes, later in life, that sort of judgemental attitude can come back to bite you in the butt. IMO.

But I have to admit that she looks awesome as a redhead.

She has a very fair complexion, with freckles and blue eyes. If the boys weren't already looking at her...new...ummm...accessories, well, they'd be looking at her hair. My hair, by the way, is turning gray because of it.

And this music thing...I cannot believe that they are listening to the same Journey songs I listened to! That's just crazy. And they want my old Foreigner 4 album. She went to the Green Day concert, BTW, when they came to KC. The hubby went, because he didn't think I was a big enough chaperone!

Sorry this was so off topic. I didn't mean for it to be. It really was about eating a Subway sandwich that I used to think was soft!