teen spirit
Years ago I worried that my the girl was going to grow up
bent and twisted by the huge amount of shade her parent's
cast.
We both liked dark poetry had memorized The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe when no one made us do so.
He wrote poems and I wrote songs which are
kind of like poems except you write music along with them.
I remember telling God "hey don't give us children
unless you really think it is a good idea." I liked kids . I
doubted our ability to parent.Neither of us were very perky.
A friend loaned me a book called All The Way Home by Mary
Pride. I had tinkered with the idea of alternative schooling
and since my husband had been sexually abused during his
grade school years by some star athelethes. He was all for
doing the homeschooling route.
When it came to poetry I had my favorites. The girl memorized
Syliva Plath's Black Shoe instead of London Bridge. We joked that instead of a college fund
we would set aside a therapist fund. It wasn't that we weren't trying to be whatever normal
was. We bought out the self help books ,went to therapists and prayed a lot.
My husband attended seminary working on Old Testament studies.
During this time I was trying to embrace the values of
homeschoolers in our area to solve the age old homeschooling
dilemma of socialization. I would say this was kind of a futile overture. I developed an
attitude that I couldn't shake. I remember writing a poem about our community that began
Sanitized for your protection
read the sign at the intersection
at this whitewashed town where I live
at the whitewashed town where I live.
It didn't pick up from there.
Hamster women walk for smiles
appliqued sweat shirts and lacqured smiles and on an on but you get the idea..
We had big Halloween parties and my husband would frighten
the neighborhood children with stuffed figures of Death in
the yard. Real Christians don't celebrate the alleged
devil's birthday and not with torches and loud music . We were outcasts.
We didn't actually worship the devil so we couldn't get into a nice group of friendly satanists but the p
hyper Christians judged us and found us lacking.
She began to live at a ballet/dance school for seven years.
You know the routine , starvation so you can be at least
thirty percent under what is considered normal body weight ,
white skin and dark hair which is so much more dramatic on
stage. Ballet Moms who will kill to get you positioned just one foot closer to center stage.
I tried to get her interested in basketball or soccer although we never watched sports on
purpose in our home.
If I could find a team that wore false eyelashes and satin shoes she might consider.
Puberty and an absence of heterosexual males at the ballet studio pushed her out into the
world.
My fear is that with such morose parents she would grow into
Wednesday Addams or the girl in Beetlejuice.
Fast forward and she is in junior college at sixteen but
involved in some youth groups. Imagine my surprise on
discovering that this look and personna is one of those to
emulate. Emo, goth, retro , hard core anti fashion and it
just goes on. Okay I don't care about current teen fashion ,
piercings, or the tatoos. We all need to do what we need to individuate
from our parents.
Edward Scissorhands and Wednesday Addams
are the new prom king and queen.
So much for individuation.
bent and twisted by the huge amount of shade her parent's
cast.
We both liked dark poetry had memorized The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe when no one made us do so.
He wrote poems and I wrote songs which are
kind of like poems except you write music along with them.
I remember telling God "hey don't give us children
unless you really think it is a good idea." I liked kids . I
doubted our ability to parent.Neither of us were very perky.
A friend loaned me a book called All The Way Home by Mary
Pride. I had tinkered with the idea of alternative schooling
and since my husband had been sexually abused during his
grade school years by some star athelethes. He was all for
doing the homeschooling route.
When it came to poetry I had my favorites. The girl memorized
Syliva Plath's Black Shoe instead of London Bridge. We joked that instead of a college fund
we would set aside a therapist fund. It wasn't that we weren't trying to be whatever normal
was. We bought out the self help books ,went to therapists and prayed a lot.
My husband attended seminary working on Old Testament studies.
During this time I was trying to embrace the values of
homeschoolers in our area to solve the age old homeschooling
dilemma of socialization. I would say this was kind of a futile overture. I developed an
attitude that I couldn't shake. I remember writing a poem about our community that began
Sanitized for your protection
read the sign at the intersection
at this whitewashed town where I live
at the whitewashed town where I live.
It didn't pick up from there.
Hamster women walk for smiles
appliqued sweat shirts and lacqured smiles and on an on but you get the idea..
We had big Halloween parties and my husband would frighten
the neighborhood children with stuffed figures of Death in
the yard. Real Christians don't celebrate the alleged
devil's birthday and not with torches and loud music . We were outcasts.
We didn't actually worship the devil so we couldn't get into a nice group of friendly satanists but the p
hyper Christians judged us and found us lacking.
She began to live at a ballet/dance school for seven years.
You know the routine , starvation so you can be at least
thirty percent under what is considered normal body weight ,
white skin and dark hair which is so much more dramatic on
stage. Ballet Moms who will kill to get you positioned just one foot closer to center stage.
I tried to get her interested in basketball or soccer although we never watched sports on
purpose in our home.
If I could find a team that wore false eyelashes and satin shoes she might consider.
Puberty and an absence of heterosexual males at the ballet studio pushed her out into the
world.
My fear is that with such morose parents she would grow into
Wednesday Addams or the girl in Beetlejuice.
Fast forward and she is in junior college at sixteen but
involved in some youth groups. Imagine my surprise on
discovering that this look and personna is one of those to
emulate. Emo, goth, retro , hard core anti fashion and it
just goes on. Okay I don't care about current teen fashion ,
piercings, or the tatoos. We all need to do what we need to individuate
from our parents.
Edward Scissorhands and Wednesday Addams
are the new prom king and queen.
So much for individuation.