The Smell of Teen Spirit

Every Tuesday afternoon, I sit with a bunch of teenage girls in the "study" room of a dance studio while my oldest taps away in class. I bring my biology textbook, which I read every week since it's new to me. That's the plan, anyway. Instead I end up listening to beeps whenever a girl receives a text message, which amounts to once a minute. Then I hear them ragging on each other, gossiping about who they like or don't like, and how they ditch classes. Today I learned that there is apparently an unofficial butt grabbing day at school, where all the kids go around like football players. I was so amazed that I momentarily broke my concentration, which is not that hard to do considering this week's chapter is on photosynthesis, and burst out laughing. They gave me a look and went back to ignoring me.

These girls are all part of the performing group at the dance school, which means they've got to take a bunch of classes each week, easily 5 at least. So they practically live there. And their moms just drop them off after school and pick them up after their last class, which might be two hours after the first one. This is why they hang out in the study room feeding the vending and teenage social machine.

There was this one girl, who played so hard at being the clown. She was loud and obnoxious - on purpose. The other girls may not have recognized her self-deprecating gestures, but this old lady did. Made me sad. Made me worried, too, at what's to come for my two girls.

Hello, moms of teenagers! Ease up on your kids' texting plans, check up on them more, and give them a proper place to do their homework. Because it is definitely not getting done even though you think it is.

On the way home, this song came on the radio which goes "I am a friend of God." My daughter told me to crank it up and let loose, doing the hand motions also. That pretty much took my worries away.