Any advice that begins with, “Your mom will never know, go ahead and…” is likely to be the worst advice ever. From this I know.
I was an unruly child. My third grade teacher Sister Barbara nicknamed me “Hotseat.” I’d finish my schoolwork and boing out of my chair to straighten books on the shelf or rustle papers (that smelled of yummy mimeograph fluid) needlessly. I was a multi-tasker before anyone had coined the word. Perhaps today a doctor would try to put me on medication – but my alert, active personality served me well as a kid. Although it did land me in trouble more often than I admit (even in my book, where I have a few confessions.) I saw my share of detentions and even a suspension…. or two. Mostly because I listened to someone (often a boy) who said, “Go ahead…” You haven’t lived until your Dad has met your new boyfriend as he (the boyfriend) carries your drunk self out of the darkened woods to Dad’s waiting car a couple of hours after the school play let out. That bad advice? “One more sip won’t kill you.” My father almost killed both of us. I wasn’t quite Rizzo, but I had my Pink Lady moments.
As a grown up, I’m able to filter out the “go ahead” troublemakers and forge my own way forward. Having kids with special needs means making far more decisions than I’d ever expected, and that will continue through out my life. There will be no empty nest chez Stagliano. But sometimes I’m the troublemaker, as evidenced in the photo above of me holding not one but two beers at the Bruce Springsteen concert at Madison Square Garden in the Fall of 2007.
Despite my advocacy position, I try not to give out too much advice to families, although I’m always available to offer friendship, a kind word, share my experiences and just listen. After all, the “Hotseat” in me isn’t entirely gone, and I’m not sure I won’t say, “Your Mom will never know. Go ahead…”
(Photo credit to the fabulous Anne Taintor products.)
“Well behaved women seldom make history.” You give new meaning to this quote by Eleanor Roosevelt, Kim! Always love your writings!
Ha ha! Thanks, Renee. My parents sent me to boarding school. Shocking, no? 🙂
I always say it’s not really a mistake if you learn something from it.
Am I remembering a t-shirt saying, “Drink, get drunk, fall down, no problem” ?
Ha ha! So remembers my boarding school roommate! I’m roaring with laughter. Fortunately I have as much on you as you do on me, Judi so our lips are sealed? (More pizza? It’s high protein….)
Kim
LOL, I always figured my mom knew a whole lot more than she let on! 🙂
Tawna
My Mom has shared some of her knowledge over the years. Like how she used to sit in the living room waiting for the headlights to hit the driveway when I’d come home from a party. She’d scoot upstairs before I came into the house. And how she knew, just KNEW, that I was never ever ever in the library on Saturday morning like my roommates told her. I was so dumb, I thought I had her snowed. Never. Moms knoooooowwwwwwwww.
Mom knows and hopefully doesn’t tell Dad! 😉
Somehow my Mom always knows!
HAHA! Now that I am a mom I realize that my mother knew everything I did….but as teenagers we think we are so smart….lol….and as adult…..I think it’s good to be bad once in a while….:)
Always have to get two beers at once at a concert! What, you were supposed to get up during Born to Run to refill?
Elise, you can barely notice my adult diaper under my jeans. Hey, I am NOT leaving during Jungleland to use the bathroom either.
Moms always know. Don’t they?
Love those magnets – I have one that says, “Oh, Sh&t, I turned into my mother.” The truth in it is scary.
I went to see Springsteen when I was 9 months pregnant. We decided if I had the baby that night, we’d name him Bruce. He hung on a bit longer, but now he’s an 11-year-old who likes Springsteen!