No problem. Just trynna help ya feel better buddy, don't like it when you're this upset

It's just been building up ever since my boss quit.

I understand. Dude, you had this big responsibility along with all the stress unexpectedly dumped onto your shoulders. You weren't expecting all this, and you were caught by surprise. Though you have a good reason to be upset, you shouldn't let it get the best if you, because you'll only feel worse. You're just gonna have to grit your teeth and push through the next two weeks, and them....It'll be over. You'll be fine dude. Just keep your head held high

So, I slept for eleven hours last night. Yesterday was quite a day. But here’s the part that I’m here to report.

The Girl (age 13) spent the afternoon at the home of a boy who is now officially her first boyfriend. I can only imagine that what I used to think of as a “playdate” was actually a four-hour make out session. So in the car I got her to spill the details while I could watch the traffic and had a chance of keeping a poker face.

By the way, The Boy is a year and a half older than her and he never tells me ANYTHING about girls. I know which ones text him when he leaves his phone lying around (it comes up on the lock screen, I haven’t snooped… yet). Now I know I should take the moms of all of the girls he even MENTIONS out to coffee/cocktails/a spa weekend, whatever it takes to get the juicy details out of them, because the girls’ moms hear it all and the boys’ moms are totally in the dark!

Anyway I’ve had The Talk with her more than once, but this was the first time about a specific boy’s body parts in the what-went-where discussion. I gave her a “defend the bases” chat in the driveway, and then we went in to have the pizza that Mr. Grits ordered.

Now, Mr. Grits usually doesn’t order the pizza, so this time there were all kinds of extras like soda, chicken wings, and dessert on the counter. Everyone fixed their plate. I popped open a 7-Up, poured some out, went straight to the liquor shelf and tipped a little bourbon into the can. Stuck a straw in and turned around to see my sweet family looking at me like this:



I guess they’ve rarely seen me drinking a 7-Up. Sheesh.

Anyway this teenager thing might be more stressful than I expected.

Aw, Grits lol!!! I hope you were gentler than my mother was.

"BOYS ARE EVIL! SEX WILL KILL YOU! YOU GET DISEASE!"

I wish I was smarter when I was 13. So many missed opportunuties. Now I spent my adulthood trying to makeup for it.

Evil children woke me up

They wanna watch me play skyrim

Grits!

Grits, you make me so glad to be an empty nester; you see, grandparents don't have to worry about any of that and get to chuckle about the irony of our grown children stressing over their own kids now.

Best of luck during this challenging phase; despite the worry and headaches, it will pass too quickly.

Yes, I heard if you go out with the Pillsbury Dough Boy he will give you a yeast infection. BWAAAHAAA!

@ Grits - Love the little report there. Had me chuckling, especially -

I popped open a 7-Up, poured some out, went straight to the liquor shelf and tipped a little bourbon into the can. Stuck a straw in and turned around to see my sweet family looking at me like this:



I guess they’ve rarely seen me drinking a 7-Up. Sheesh.

My advice...have The Girl invite her beau over for supper, and make sure Mr. Grits is sitting on the couch cleaning a gun when he arrives.

@ mALX - Yes, I heard if you go out with the Pillsbury Dough Boy he will give you a yeast infection. BWAAAHAAA!

Boys stay two years behind girls about this kind of thing. Lots of girls may be chasing "The Boy Grits," but before you go hog wild on taking their parents out, you should realize he is probably embarrassed and not reciprocating or is just friends at this point. You've got at least .5-1.5 years before he gets on schedule with girls. (by the way, my young daughter was on his phone, so I'll take that spa day! I'm lying of course, lol).

"The Girl Grits" - still safe, as long as it is group activities or at least double couples when they go anywhere.

You are freaking out because it just hit you that they are teens and what that means, but you raised them right and they will remember everything they learned most of the time while they are out and about, relax.

The thing about teen daughters is that you can king of relive your teens as they go through theirs - first periods, first dates, proms and dances, etc - now is the time to draw closer to her and not shut off the communication with fears and lectures. If you had a pet name for her when she was younger (one that isn't embarrassing) - now is the time to remember to use it with her, and talk to her about your teen years (censored to the situation at hand, of course).

This is a beautiful and magical time for daughters and mothers to go through together. I worried more about my sons getting some girl pregnant than I worried over my daughter, lol.

Ok so, what´s goin´ on?

Edit: Eva´s back!! Saw her in the FO thread!

I think everyone is giving Grits the parent's equivalent of The Talk, or...something.

I 'unno, I've been too busy having unprotected sex to pay attention to what everyone was talking about on this thread. Probably nothing all that important or relevant to what I've just been posting.

Sex? I know I´ve heard about this...

My Brother and I were the rambunctious duo growing up, and we had a set of Cousins, two girls who were the angels, etc.

It was usually: "Why can't you guys be more like your sweet angelic cousins?!" when we often got into trouble...which we had more than our fair share of admittedly.

Later in life, when it came time for the darker realities of life, drinking, dating, drugs, etc. My Brother and I had a lifetime of exposure to these events and the consequences they entailed and were able too navigate with clearer minds through these dark and twisty river-bends.

My cousins however, were being exposed to these things, largely for the first time. They were utterly consumed.
One became a drug addict, the other an alcoholic. Both ended up becoming pregnant several times, and having miscarriages as a result of their practices.

My Brother and I both did try alcohol and some, uh...green tobacco a few times growing up, but never went anything further than that. We both did end up taking smoking unfortunately, so our heads weren't that well stocked with wisdom.

Now, with all of us in our thirties, the girls have been married for almost ten years I believe, both have so many kids, I've forgotten how many they have between the two of them. Neither have jobs, or they work part-time here and there. Both complain about their Husbands and how hard their lives as Mother's are. If they are happy, it does not show through their words. Both are dropouts.

My Brother runs an IT department, and earns nearly six figures a year. I work on an Ambulance, and am attending Nursing School. My Brother is currently engaged to a wonderful woman, and I've offered to write out their invites in Engraver's Script. I'm staying out of the dating world, until I finish school. Women are distracting in the best way possible, We both are dropout's as well.

Neither of us have children just yet. We want to be at a good place in life before that takes place.

When we visit them; which is rare, we end up paying for the outings. We solve all of their 'problems' for them which are really common sense issues half the time. Such as spending five dollars for a new showerhead when the old one breaks. One of them didn't know a showerhead can be replaced.

The point of all this is not to say that we are better than they. It is not to state that I know how to raise children, much less a person that forgot more about how to raise kids than I'll ever know.

No, it's to point out a key difference between the two of our parent's style of raising kids. Their parent's idea was that it was their duty to protect them from the big, bad world and they were sheltered to an almost extreme level.

Our parent's idea was too prepare us for the big, bad world, to instill us with the skills necessary to deal with anything that might come along, and how to get by day to day.

I still remember the day when I was no more than ten, and my Dad took me down to Skid Row (A large homeless section of Los Angeles city in California) and had me look at everyone. He told me they were people just like me. People who had made very bad choices in life, and that this was a very real potential consequence if I made those choices.

Yep, I think it’s important to let them know what’s coming and give them some ideas on how they might deal with it. Too much sheltering only works for the parents, and then only in the short term.


So this morning I returned home from my emergency breakfast smoothie run to find The Boy’s night clothes in the middle of the stairs where he had presumably stripped off in the hallway and flung them at his retreating sister. So I know she woke him up on time, but I wonder how she did it. Probably better off not knowing.

Curious as to what constitutes an "emergency breakfast smoothie". For me it would probably mean putting my coffee and my breakfast sandwich (typically egg & cheesse) into a blender and then a go cup.

I ran out of blueberries.

ugh. This place is cold

Then why are you not closing the door to the freezer?

Cuz I'm at school

Yep. I was very sheltered. So much so, in fact, and I'm embarrassed to admit this, but once so returned to highschool to finish out my senior year, I had no idea how to talk to people. I had no idea how to deal with people.

I was weird, and had anxiety problems because I didn't know how to deal with problems. My mom handled everything for me, every minute detail of my life. She talked for me, managed my paychecks when O got a job, etc etc. Once I met my husband, he told me I needed to quit that, and I did. I relied so heavily on her because she made me. I had no idea how to do ANYTHING.

Oh, I thought you were eating again. Don´t know where I got that from

Theres like ten minutes of school left!!! HOME! HOME! HOME!

You mean FOOD! FOOD! FOOD!

Sorry, Kobby. I just find it funny you are hungry all the time

Eh, it's fine. My metabolism is a bit too fast, that's why I'm always so hungry

I used to have a friend like that

so, whatcha doin' mirocu?

Hey, thanks for asking! Oh wait. This isn´t the conversation thread

Just played some Fallout 3 and now I´m catching up here. Soon, I suspect, I will watch some TBBT clips while playing some chess. And shaving

What about you?

I'm waiting for school to end then I gotta pick up my sister's kids and watch 'em for the rest of the day

When´s her new kid due?

I haven't asked her that. Maybe I should..........lol

Yeah, so you can book a flight to Jupiter

Nah, I was aiming for Pluto

Good choice. Pluto´s not even a planet anymore so she´ll never think to look for you there!

See. I can make good discussions

I didn´t want to suggest Pluto cause I was afraid I´d get sued by Disney

I'm takin' the risk!!!

I know you can. When I´m on your case I´m simply diverting your attention from the fact that I can´t

I meant decisions, lol. Auto-correct is a....

Actually, discussions made alot more sense considering our constant talk about spam

Lol. You've got a good point there....

Well, shaving´s done. Now it´s all TBBT and chess. And later off to bed.

Life rocks

Tell me about it, lol

Omg Kaley Cuoco is so friggin cute!

-sigh-

I'm in a bad mood....

Why?

I don't even know. Tired I guess.

Sorry to add to that but I have to leave you now. Mr Sandman calls.

Sandman...?


ENTER SANDMAN!!!