Tuesday, January 13, 2009

I'm #2, but that's ok

As the mother of teenagers, I know I can be the enemy. With our church youth group, I am the "bad cop"--the one who reins it in when things get a little too crazy. I'm ok with that--especially since I don't have to do it often.

My boys will tell you that I go out of my way to embarrass them, which is true. Actually, they tell me I'm embarrassing myself, but I'm not. I don't care if people think I'm crazy or eccentric. I'm going to wear my Santa hat and holiday socks at Christmas regardless. I'm going to sing along (very off-key) to my radio or ipod. That's just who I am. Deal with it.

So, when the 17-year old told me he considered me to be the 2nd best mom around, I was pleased. I think over the past couple of years he's realized that he has it good. We don't always get along--we both are at rather hormonal stages in our lives--but our little arguments tend to be over fairly insignificant things in the grand scheme. I think he also realizes that I remember what it's like to be a teenager, and while I need to point out bad decisions, as long as certain rules are adhered to, I'm pretty flexible. Some day I'll relate my escapades during the blizzard of 1978 (or not).

His favorite mom? That would be Carol. If you go back in the archives (adventures with...), you'll see that Carol was the one who encouraged me to get my then-16-year-old son a Mustang. She's an insurance agent--it's good for business. She's the mom that's been known to be out baja'ing on the golf cart in the wee hours of the morning (lol). And I could go into the whole burping thing (which would be embarrassing to my boys if I did it) or the text messages... But she's of the same vein--have fun, but be smart. You don't need the extra, less-than-legal stuff to have a good time. Truthfully, if I were a teenager, Carol would be my favorite mom too. As it is, she's one of my favorite people for the same reasons my kids love her.

So I'll settle for my #2 rating, grateful that at least I made the list.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

awwww That was way nice. You have done an awesome job with your boys, they have turned out great. You should be very proud. As soon as the weather warms up a little, we may just be stopping by on the baja'ing golf cart to pick you up too....hahaha. I look forward to many more fun times.

Phyllis said...

Maybe we should figure out a schedule to take the golf cart over to the Y! We can talk about that (the Y part).