Adjusting To New Role In Family and Society

Bad haircut and bad attitude: A snap from the college days.

As academics and serious amateurs (the kids) have noted, I've been going through my photos recently. All those memories, bittersweet and excellent. How could I have dressed that way, done that, thought that?

Although I am currently full of acknowledgement for the stupidity I wallowed in, I'm thankful I didn't arrive at my present mindset when I was a teenager. A fifty-year-old father of two should have a completely different perspective than when he was young -- and if he doesn't, then woe to all involved!

Yesterday the daughter, who is in ninth grade, was saying she may have been invited to a party where alcohol would be served. LSS and myself have already done the "don't drink and drive" thing, warned against the corrosive nature of peer pressure, and expelled voluminous amounts of air explaining the minutiae of our permissive policies. So the conversation naturally and quickly veered into comedy.

Basically I could run a nice side business as one who, for a fee, would don a fleece bathrobe and yell at other peoples' kids for being too loud, drinking, smoking, or doing nothing at all. My rage and sleepwear would be fearful. Kids would certainly leap out of windows to escape my ridiculousness.

Do I feel I am betraying an earlier version of myself? No. Most definitely not.

As I get older I continue to give myself permission to change my mind, clothes, attitudes as soon as the moment arrives when such needs to be done. This has been constant from the get go. It's okay to try new things, and when the haircut really sucks, move on to a turkey hat.

Stoke!