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November 24, 2007
Jason and I are sitting in a booth at Casita del Campo, the local quasi gay neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Jason, my cousin’s 13 year old grandson, was hungry after the movie so I was delighted at the prospect of going to Casita and having Margaritas while we went over his homework.
It was math. And it wasn’t algebra. And I didn’t know quite how to relate. In college I wasn’t bad at math, I got an A- in Calculus at Berkeley, but I never felt I could put it all together despite getting good grades. I looked through his book. 35 years later I still felt a disconnect.
Despite getting soused on margaritas, with Jason’s help I was able to figure out how to divide fractions. However, when it came to how many feet were in a mile I turned to Jay, the maitre ‘d, who promptly responded 1760. This didn’t seem right and upon questioning he clarified that this was actually yards. The food arrived before we were able to move on to the next exercise.
But it was the following conversation that really struck and motivated me to blog tonight.
Reaching into my inner core I was able to get out the question:
“Should kids be controlled by their guardians?”
“Mostly,” he said. That was a positive and open answer so I searched for clarification and asked what me meant.
“Their guardians may not always be right and kids should be able to think for themselves.”
Whether it was the margaritas or the validity of his statement, it rang so true that I had to write it down on the place mats and also ask Jay what he thought.
Jay agreed but also threw out that guardians knew better.
Having been with a few parents I knew better then to think that guardians know better. But they still had the right to know better. I asked Jason about this and appropriately enough said he didn’t feel they always knew better.
Well, there it is. Teenage-hood in a nutshell. Guardians have the right but are not necessarily so. Teenagers have the right to think for themselves.
Guardians have veto power.
Jason and I are sitting in a booth at Casita del Campo, the local quasi gay neighborhood Mexican restaurant. Jason, my cousin’s 13 year old grandson, was hungry after the movie so I was delighted at the prospect of going to Casita and having Margaritas while we went over his homework.
It was math. And it wasn’t algebra. And I didn’t know quite how to relate. In college I wasn’t bad at math, I got an A- in Calculus at Berkeley, but I never felt I could put it all together despite getting good grades. I looked through his book. 35 years later I still felt a disconnect.
Despite getting soused on margaritas, with Jason’s help I was able to figure out how to divide fractions. However, when it came to how many feet were in a mile I turned to Jay, the maitre ‘d, who promptly responded 1760. This didn’t seem right and upon questioning he clarified that this was actually yards. The food arrived before we were able to move on to the next exercise.
But it was the following conversation that really struck and motivated me to blog tonight.
Reaching into my inner core I was able to get out the question:
“Should kids be controlled by their guardians?”
“Mostly,” he said. That was a positive and open answer so I searched for clarification and asked what me meant.
“Their guardians may not always be right and kids should be able to think for themselves.”
Whether it was the margaritas or the validity of his statement, it rang so true that I had to write it down on the place mats and also ask Jay what he thought.
Jay agreed but also threw out that guardians knew better.
Having been with a few parents I knew better then to think that guardians know better. But they still had the right to know better. I asked Jason about this and appropriately enough said he didn’t feel they always knew better.
Well, there it is. Teenage-hood in a nutshell. Guardians have the right but are not necessarily so. Teenagers have the right to think for themselves.
Guardians have veto power.
How the hell do you reconcile this?
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