Taking The World On With A Smile!

If you have kids, you know, part of their job in life is to go out of their way to baffle, befuddle and bemuse you, any-way-they-can. I know this to be true because (although my kids find this extremely hard to believe) I was a kid once too.

As a parent, it’s our job to stay one-step-ahead of them at-all-times, or at least try to anyway.

For instance, at 11:30pm when I head down to my 13-year old son’s bedroom to make sure the lights are out and Skype-ing is over for the night and I find him lying in bed with eyelids closed but rapidly flickering, I know that although he wants me to believe he is sound asleep, he’s not. I also see that even though the lid to the laptop is down, it’s still on.

I cut him some summer-time, slack though and leave him be. At least the light’s out!

In their effort to confound and confuse parents, kids often make up words or sayings; some more easily deciphered than others.

Similar to Rerun’s popular “Hey, hey hey, what’s happening?” phrase from the 1970s TV show of the same name for example, my 11-year old daughter often asks,

What’s the hap, Mama? What’s the hap?

Sometimes they take advantage of my desire to keep my pulse on all-things-current and use pure unadulterated trickery for their own evil childhood pleasure, like when they told me that kids no longer say that something is “cool” anymore. My lovelies informed me that they were now saying:

That’s so throw-up!

A word of caution: Do not use this phrase in a school, especially if you work there. Little kids don’t understand and may think you are saying their artwork looks like throw-up. They may then start to cry. I’m just saying. It could happen.

If you’re hip like me, you are familiar with the Pound It exchange between two or more people. Pound It, as those of us who remain in-touch and one-step-ahead know, is the new high-five.

When my 11-year old daughter witnessed me “Pounding It” with another student at her school one day, she quickly pulled me to the side and in a hushed but urgent tone asked me what exactly it was that I was doing. When I responded, “Pounding It. Why?” She informed me that, that was so–last-year and lame. Kids she said, don’t just Pound It anymore, they LICK POUND IT!

Immediately before “Pounding It”, right after you make a fist, you are meant to lick your knuckles, then Pound It.

Gullible? Perhaps.

Three bewildered (and grossed out) kids later, I realized I’d been duped — again.

I love summer for a bagillion reasons but mostly because I get to spend more time with these fun-loving, crafty kids of mine. I also have more time to read, read, read! We’re just about mid-way into our months of recreation and relaxation and to date, I’ve completed the Stieg Larsson Girl With The Dragon Tattoo three-book series and am halfway through The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, all of which have been most satisfying page-turners. I don’t leave the house without my book as you never know when the opportunity to read may arise (like when your sitting in your car on a long line at the Dairy Queen drive -thru) and I often find myself running back into the house exclaiming…

Oh, I forgot my book!

To this my angels equally offer their latest cryptic description of my character for me to decode.

Mom, you are such a DREN!

Indeed, I suspect I am.

Parents be informed — as I am.

D R E N spelled backwards = Me. And maybe you too.

Either way, it’s all good.

Tell me, are you one-step-ahead too?

Photo Credit #1-4 Google Images