May 17, 2006

American Idol!

Missed it.

We had an awards ceremony last night at the high school and Oldest was being recognized for being on the A-B honor roll during her previous semester. It was nice, especially given her constant struggle with honors geometry this semester. I don't think she's going to be able to maintain that A-B grade position, although there is some good in it. We believe she has finally realized that thinking you know how to do everything and actually being able to do everything are possibly, maybe, two different things.

Yeah, I know--that's just CRAZY TALK! Obviously, the trouble must lay with her teacher, and everyone else in class, and everyone else in school, rather than in not studying.

Anyway, it was a nice event, even if it did run a bit long--started at 6:30, ended past 8:00, and the seating surface was the gym bleachers. My heavily padded buttocks began to hurt about five minutes into the feature. The school's jazz band provided pre-show entertainment. Those kids are really, really good--and an especial acknowledgement to the young lady in the trumpet section.

The kids managed to behave pretty well, considering they were all missing American Idol. Well, that is, the 50% of honorees who decided to attend, the other half apparently wanting to do something else.

Since we mentioned helicopter parenting this morning, I do have to say I found myself wishing for a bit more of that, or at least some parental input to the niceties of polite society such as suggesting that receiving an award by slouching to the presenter whilst wearing cutoff camo pants, Birks, and a ratty tee-shirt probably isn't the way it should be done. Please folks--no gum smacking, no hands rammed into pants pockets, no flip-flops, no hulking hairy legs (this only pertained to guys last night--thank heavens), no nervous hair flipping, no mouth-breathing, and none of that odd, "I'm too cool to be ashamed of how cool I think I'm being," manner of movement most on display by the boys, but also by some of the girls. Oh, and girls--or your parents, at least--believe it or not, there are some social situations where a skirt can actually be too short. Yep, believe it or not! Although our little burg has grown by leaps and bounds (Trussvegas!), it is still not Hollywood, and you are still not Paris Hilton. At least not until the grainy, night-vision video is available online.

Anywho, congratulations to all the kids and keep working hard. Dude.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at May 17, 2006 01:28 PM
Comments

It's funny, but I don't know that helicopter parenting actually involves worrying too much about those sorts of anti-social behaviors. I think it more involves knowing where your child is at all times and blaming everything they do wrong on someone else.

Posted by: Jordana at May 17, 2006 03:33 PM

I think you're right--the truest whirlybirds seem to have a hearty disdain for compromising their child's sense of self-esteem by ever suggesting that there are such things as societal norms. That's so fundamentalist, you know. BE FREE! And if you get in trouble, I'll bail you out! Or maybe it would be best if I just stay in jail with you and we can protest police brutality together!

Posted by: Terry Oglesby at May 17, 2006 03:47 PM