In what I can only describe as a dangerously close brush with parenting, Mr. bon and I were put to the test this week. No need to fear, I am delirious to report that we escaped unharmed. This time.
The child in question was the eldest of the two bon-lets; the boy.
Said boy was invited to this Thursday's winter blow-out concert, Deck the Hall Ball put on by the local rad radio station. Call me conservative, call me overprotective, call me what you will, but when the headliners are Gnarles Barkley and My Chemical Romance and the gig is going down at the semi-massive Key Arena, I'm going to think twice before I allow my 14-year-old -boy to get jiggy with it amongst a gazillion chemically enhanced strangers -especially on a school night.
I won't go in to all the details except to admit that the deal was pretty well thought-out by the instigator's parents and involved door-to-arena-to-door transportation. I was assured that, "security these days (since 911)" is very tight. To which I responded with, "no, I don't live under a rock" and, "yes, I have ventured beyond Lyle Lovett and gone to a hard core rock concert in the past 2 years."
And I will admit to you I did go through a full range of emotions. Which I believe it started with, though not uttered audibly, "No freaking (er, something like that) way!"
Then a sharp turn at "I don't care if I'm the nerdiest mom on the block, my kid is not staying up til one freaking (yes again) a.m. on a school night for a, yes you guessed it, freaking, concert. That definitely is not good parenting."
With a long pause at, "well maybe, if he wants to go though he better not choose this week to retreat into teen silence and shrug his shoulders when I ask the important questions such as 'what interests you about this concert?' 'who is playing?' 'is this really something you're willing to spend your hard-earned money on?' and the all important, 'is this a special girl?' "
Then finally, after a consultation with the hippest mom I know, and a fair bit of perspective and persuasion from Mr. bon, I came to, "well if he can make a case for it and show me some enthusiasm I guess it's time to make this leap and let him go."
But the kid is cool.
Way cool. Cool as a cucumber.
Cooler than ice water.
Cooler than I'll ever hope to be.
When we found a quiet moment to have the talk; you know, the one in which he would convince me that there was no freakin' way he was missing the concert? he flat out shocked me.
"I changed my mind. I don't want to go."
He went on to tell me that he wanted to be "pumped for Friday, because it's well, Friday" and that "I can stay up late listening to my own choice of music any night I want."
In a moment of rare parenting brilliance, I bit my tongue, closed my mouth, and smiled. Then I told the boy how impressed I was with his intelligent decision.
Silently, I thanked him for letting us off easy. This time.
10 comments:
Whoa! That was a close one...and you were let off easy. I will remind you, however, that the bon-lets do have some rather cool elders that may still be cool enough to help out in such situations...I love singing, "Am I making you craaaaazzzzzy..." to J. I bet T could pull out some Jingle Bell bash tunes too...Doesn't sound like the eldest's heart was really into it though either...Glad to see a new post.
Are the cool elders synonymous with the "cool cousins?"
If so, please know ya'll got the go-ahead to get this boy some out to hear some live tunes anywhere, anytime - prob'ly even on a school night!
Not necessarily...However, in this case, yes (although K likes country and I don't know that she'd work this time--does she know these tunes?).
I'd love to take the oldest bon-let to catch some tunes--let me know when he wants to go...
gnarles barkley at the key? was it a concert or a sonics retrospective? i believe i saw my first big concert at 14. if memory serves, it was fleetwood mac and the beach boys at mile high stadium.
stevie nicks was doing the witch impersonation, and singing "rhiannon."
good times.
Come to think of it Space, I was probably the same age when I attended my first concert in the very same venue Gnarles and company played the other night. Only, it was John Denver and my sister took me!
Memorable indeed, the opening act was Starland Vocal Band. How many people can claim they've seen "Afternoon Delight" performed in person?
PS BENDER: who sings the "craaaaazzzzy" song?
Should I be downloading it?
john denver and the starland vocal band. now that's some good clean fun. the SVB made post-lunch nookie sound republican-safe. twin beds, no clothes removed, and one foot on the floor at all times.
hmmm...one foot on the floor at all times?
That could be interesting, no matter what your political persuasian may be.
You know, I'm always kind of late at looking at this stuff, but you should know that aside from the one time I wouldn't take S or K to the Backstreet Boys or something like that... (I was willing, someone else got in the way....) I'm always down for a show. As oldest member of the cool cousin club- I want first dibs on the shows. I would have totally gone to see those bands. And for the record, other cool depending on your age bands I've seen in the past year include ... Prince, Coldplay, Springsteen (2x), U2, Purple Reign (THE Prince Cover Band).
Then there are the ones the younger folks like... kings of leon, fiona apple, NERD, Dashboard Confessional (x3), Kanye West, Black Eyed Peas, Twalib Kweli, Elvis Costello, I'm sure there were some others.
And I can't wait for Justin Timberlake to come to town.
Um....re: T's comment: I just wanted to clear that up -- it was clearly for K....
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