Life among the princesses

[gratteciella]

I spent this past weekend at Camp Alonim at the Brandeis Bardin Institute babysitting being a camp counselor for a bunkful of 10th graders.  I know, you're wondering why I did this.  The truth is, it was silly from beginning to end.  I got an email from someone at my synagogue who's a high school teacher asking for counselors for her school's

Comments

[pandoradeloeste]

Thy HTML is broken. The first cut-tag needs to be closed.

[gratteciella]

Heh. That's what happens when you're reading as I'm still modifying my code (this rich text vs. source thing temporarily threw me for a loop w/r/t the LJ-cut).

[pandoradeloeste]

Stupid rich text. I never use it if I can help it.

[gratteciella]

Really, you think the princesses are worse today? I'm not so sure. (Though I do think they're dressing sluttier.) I do agree that it's probably worse in LA than in most other places, with the possible exception of other big trendy cities like Manhattan (don't hold me to that, though) -- there's more image-consciousness here. But I'm sure you'll find similar things anywhere there's media and teenage girls whose families have lots and lots of money.

[nena_nieve]

Wow, that sounds ... horrid. I'm really sorry.

Whatever doesn't kill you ... makes a good story, right?

[gratteciella]

It's true. Actually, the weekend had its good parts -- a few hours of fun crammed into the space of a few days. And I made a little money that I can now use on something entirely luxurious: a new iPod, or maybe a day at the spa or something.

[nena_nieve]

You definitely deserve something entirely luxurious, after that weekend!!

I just bought a new iPod, myself, in my rash of spending yesterday. The old one really works fine, but I don't use it much because the battery life isn't super-long. And I just got tired of thinking, "ooh, that's a neat new feature/accessory ... too bad I can't use it with my iPod!" Now I can watch Hidden Frontier anywhere I want!

[daunzerly]

Damn--that was utterly foreign to me, and thus fascinating.

I could picture you hunkering in a corner of the room with a notepad, all Jane Goodall-like.

[gratteciella]

Yeah, it sort of felt like that too, especially because they were completely ignoring me. I felt like I'd made major inroads in my research when I could distinguish the sophisticates from the more normal kids, and when I could pinpoint which girl was most likely to be the outcast.

I've always wanted to be an anthropologist ...

[cinediva]

My real question is... Am I about to give birth to one of these? What can I do to prevent this? ;)

[gratteciella]

Eh. I think teens are better alone than in groups, and better in organized situations (classrooms, etc.) than given free time (at least I hope so, for the sake of my high school teacher friends). As a mom, you'll be most likely to be around individuals or pairs of girls.

Also, don't forget that you've got at least 10 years to prepare for this -- both to steel yourself and to expand your daughter's consciousness beyond the narrow confines of clothes, curling irons, and cattiness.

[cinediva]

Haha, what is a curling iron? I personally have never successfully used one. And if she takes after Ben at all... she'll hate superficial crap. Here's hoping.