Tie a Yellow Ribbon...

When you're a mom of a teen, it's so hard to keep a straight face, much less know how to respond during conversations. Sometimes you score, sometimes you don't, and sometimes you're just left wondering "What???"

I had this conversation with Girlie Girl (16) this afternoon, or rather, the conversation had me:


She burts thru the door with this piece of yellow yarn in a bow around her neck and starts yapping about this guy and that girl and who said what. She's going on and on and on, and the whole time I'm looking at this yellow yarn bow around her neck. I want to ask... but I figure she'll either explain it, run out of breath, or a friend will call.

Finally, she sighs and says "Don't you even want to know about the BOW? I've been talking and standing here and you haven't even asked about the BOW. Did you even SEE the BOW?"

"Yes," I said, "I saw the bow. I just didn't want to interrupt you while you were telling me about your day." *Teenager smiled! Mom scored!* "So, tell me about the bow?"

"It's for Yearbook Staff Initiation!" *WTF? Yearbook staff has an initiation? What do they do? Make the newbies chug a case of Red Bull and send them off on ridiculous missions to the dark room or computer lab? Reignite the age old Yearbook staff vs. Newspaper staff rivalry?*

I said, "Oh! That's great!" *Wrong answer.*

"No! It's NOT great! We had to wear our bows around ALL DAY! It was soooooooo embarrassing I could have just DIED!" *Hmmmm. Die of embarrassment? That's cheaper than college! What could I do to push her over the edge?*

Phone Rings. She's off to talk to someone who'd obviously more interesting than mom, leaving me to ponder the many ways I could embarrass my child to death.

Post Script. An hour later she went to the football game, wearing the bow. Came home, wearing the bow. She did take it off before her bath. I've got it. Just in case.