Guest post by Leslie Mitchell
Leslie is my good friend on the east coast whom I spent endless hours on the phone with when I worked for the good ole candy company M&M/Mars. I owe many thanks to Leslie for keeping our trademarks in check and the company out of court! Nowadays, Leslie is mom to a 10 year old adorable and inquisitive little girl. Her fun has only just begun!
In the last year, my 10 year old daughter developed a huge crush on Ross Lynch of Disney’s Austin & Ally, Teen Beach Movie and band R5. He seems likable enough, family band, cute in that blond, puppy dog way (the fact that she looks like his little sister makes me wonder how much narcissism is involved but that’s for another day.) Recently while on our long car trips from her fencing lessons, I’ve fielded a number of questions about boys. Nothing too deep, what do boys do when they like you, what do girls do, but I know this is just the beginning. My daughter is definitely on the naive side, no older siblings to help her navigate these unchartered waters. I’m glad she’s asking me these questions, I recall relying on my friends for these answers and didn’t talk to my mother much about boys, dating, and sex because her replies were always “don’t do it!”
A number of my high school friends are on Facebook and that brings back lots of memories of our high school years. We had a great class, yes everyone says that but I honestly think in our case, it’s true. We were the first freshman class entering a new high school (prior to us the high school was grades 10-12) and as I recall, the other classes weren’t that welcoming because I think they thought we were so young. Homecoming was a big deal in our town in Connecticut, a parade down Main Street of the floats that each class spent weeks designing, building and decorating with paper flowers. Think of the Rose Bowl Parade but with a black and orange Tiger theme. Our freshman year our class really came together when our float, a train with real smoke, caught on fire during the parade. Of course the girls cried, we came in second place and a bond was formed that made us a very close class. So “talking” to these people on Facebook brings back a lot of fun memories.
It’s those same memories that are making me dread when my daughter is old enough for her first dance, first “boyfriend,” first kiss and all that entails because no matter what my mother said to me, I really didn’t listen. Don’t hitchhike, we did. Don’t smoke, we tried cigarettes in Ballard Park. Don’t drink, we did (it was easier when the drinking age was still 18) and so on. I remember the house parties when someone’s parents were out of town, kegs in the kitchen or outside, plenty of woods to sneak off to, you get the picture. We didn’t do anything terrible but looking back we could’ve gotten into so many bad situations. They say there is a Guardian Angel watching over teenagers, I hope that’s true. I also hope that my daughter will continue to talk to me, I dread thinking the nice boys in her class will one day be potential “boyfriends” and I’m scared to death that someone will hand her a beer and say “chug this.” I’m even more scared someone will slip something in a drink or she’ll be exposed to drugs.
I’m really thinking that the Tower in Tangled wasn’t such a bad idea……then again she did ride off with Flynn!
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