(I don’t know what to say about the shirt. I was trying to reconcile not buttoning the top button with wearing a tie. I should have picked one or the other.)
Two middle schoolers. I am the parent of TWO middle schoolers. As painful as that is, I’d much rather parent them than
Two middle schoolers. I am the parent of TWO middle schoolers. As painful as that is, I’d much rather parent them than
be
them. Middle school was rough. I was full of self-doubt and wanted to be noticed and yet was also completely certain that everyone else was thinking of me and judging me at all times. My kids seem to be feeling some of that, but not on nearly the same scale, and I have to wonder why. Where is the awkwardness? Where is the angst? Let’s compare and contrast:
Junior High-1983 Middle School-2008
Drugs and gangs. 1) Drugs and gangs.
Russia was going to nuke us. 2) International terrorism
Totally rad music. 3) Unintelligible pop trash.
Clothes to look back and shudder at. 4) Ditto.
Hair prep - 90 minutes. 5) Hair prep - 90 seconds.
That’s it. I believe that this is the difference between my daughter’s happy self-confidence and my complete self-involvement. It’s the hair. The hair-do above started with a perm about every 4 months and had to be washed daily. Then -mousse, and I would flip over to blow dry it upside down and spend around thirty minutes carefully curling it and burning my neck. All of the effort was held in place with way too much Aqua Net. At this point, if I determined I was having a bad hair day, I would try to summon up enough symptoms to convince my mom that I needed to stay home sick. (Sorry Mom. To your credit though, you didn’t fall for it very often.) Failing that, I went through the school day convinced that people were pointing and laughing at me at every turn. Even on good hair days, throughout the day I ran for the bathroom mirror to see how it was holding up, but if it started looking bad there wasn’t much to do. You can’t comb through that much hair spray. Even ponytails required a lot of work in the 80’s. You had to have either a
Russia was going to nuke us. 2) International terrorism
Totally rad music. 3) Unintelligible pop trash.
Clothes to look back and shudder at. 4) Ditto.
Hair prep - 90 minutes. 5) Hair prep - 90 seconds.
That’s it. I believe that this is the difference between my daughter’s happy self-confidence and my complete self-involvement. It’s the hair. The hair-do above started with a perm about every 4 months and had to be washed daily. Then -mousse, and I would flip over to blow dry it upside down and spend around thirty minutes carefully curling it and burning my neck. All of the effort was held in place with way too much Aqua Net. At this point, if I determined I was having a bad hair day, I would try to summon up enough symptoms to convince my mom that I needed to stay home sick. (Sorry Mom. To your credit though, you didn’t fall for it very often.) Failing that, I went through the school day convinced that people were pointing and laughing at me at every turn. Even on good hair days, throughout the day I ran for the bathroom mirror to see how it was holding up, but if it started looking bad there wasn’t much to do. You can’t comb through that much hair spray. Even ponytails required a lot of work in the 80’s. You had to have either a
or a giant, floppy hair bow and you still had to tease and spray your bangs into place.
Reagan’s hair is so simple. She washes and conditions it and then brushes it into place. That’s it. (Although in this picture we did blow dry it to up the shininess.) No gels or sprays. If it gets messed up, she brushes it or throws it up into a messy ponytail which is just as acceptable. Not worrying about the state of her hair frees her up to actually participate in P.E. or sports and walk in the wind or rain without fear. She can sleep later in the morning. She needn’t carry a gigantic comb around in her back pocket.
Don’t let anyone tell you that it is harder to be a kid today. It is clearly much, much simpler. The proof is in the hair.
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