teens was Re: SC - alcohol revisited

[Laura C. Minnick]

Bonne of Traquair wrote:

> I'm undecided.  First daughter (age 16) was like Olwen's, but has given it
> up in favor or a look best described as 'surfer prep' and given up the punk
> shows for actual 'study groups' or dinner out with kids who are
> frighteningly well behaved and middle class.  Having learned that the punk
> crowd was much nicer than they appeared, I'm sure this crowd can't be nearly
> as nice as they appear.  (mom-stress always finds something to latch onto).

Older daughter Annie (Rotrude) hangs with a mixed crowd- someof them
very nice and very middle-class, some of them very nice and very
strange. I'll never forget when her friend Jon came over for a party- he
walked into the house, came into the kitchen, dyed mohawk, makeup, lip
studs and all, introduced himself very politely, and shook my hand. I
was flabbergasted. Just about any of those kids I would bail out in an
emergency.
 
> The younger one (age 14) is growing into this crowd as well.

The 14-year-old brother sometimes hangs with the younger sibs of Annie's
crowd, but mostly with his gaming/computergeek friends. The only problem
is his grades have dropped alot. Baby sister is 13 but hasn't really
come into herself yet. She will in time...
 
> My nerves can't wait til they are 18 and 20 and I can call myself off-duty.
> (as if)

Lydia will be 18 in five years. But I will have three in college at the
same time...

> Karen (Bonne is childless, at least, Cecily and Bronwyn both claim to be
> orphans)

Ha! Rotrude claims me, but she hates it when my alter-ego, Cousin 'Bob'
is around, and even more my confessor, Father Abelard. She thinks
they're weird. But weird is Mr. Hamster-Dance himself, Seumas! That's
weird!

Obligatory food content- I discovered a couple of years back that a
simple and spiffy party for teenagers is to grill burgers (and some Boca
Burgers for the vegetarians) and let them assemple their own, the table
being piled with buns, condiments, lettuce, fresh basil, tomato, cheese,
etc. Add chips and soda and they're happy. And of course I sneak other
things in too- the girls have eaten period food in camp of course, but
we've also had Flan of Almayne at home, a strawberry tart, gingerbread,
and a variety of other things when a pile of teens is camped out in the
living room. Presented with a zippy 'hey! try this! It's really cool!'
and then telling them where the recipe came from later is a great way to
broaden their horizons a little.

Just be carefull of long stringy things if they have a lip or tongue
stud. ;-)

'Lainie