I wonder if Buddha ever felt like jumping up from lotus pose and smacking someone upside the head? Apparently I have some distance to go before I settle down under the bodhi tree and the light of peace starts emanating from my third eye. The short version of this sad story (see posting below) is that after my daughters' friend stayed ALL spring break, including Easter morning (when she duly and unappreciatively received an Easter basket from the Easter fairy) and all three girls were driven to a concert at a club in Cleveland where there were twelve inches of snow and nasty driving conditions, and hoodies were purchased, boy-band members were hugged and did I receive effusive or even modest thanks? No I did not. And if you think that was a run-on sentence you should have heard me lecturing my girls after friend was finally sent home!!!
The road to eternal reincarnation may, in fact, be paved with good intentions, but I'm guessing it's also jam packed with pissed off moms. A Buddhist teacher would say that this is my opportunity to practice nonattachment but that will have to wait until my kids aren't grounded anymore.
3 comments:
I was just thinking that maybe the girls could practice nonattachment since they will have time on their hands while being grounded. Then I thought about that term "grounded." As adults we think about it positively, don't we? To be grounded is to be stable, centered. Whereas for the teens being grounded is to be confined to your family, which is a great big drag...They don't want to be centered, in that way at least.
Being grounded was sorta fun for me. I think I only got it twice... I just stayed in my room and played with my Legos or listened to baseball on the radio. Then again, if I'd misbehaved enough in high school to get grounded, I don't think I would have responded well. And as far as grades go, my grades in high school were crappy just because I never gave a shit, and happily did as little work as possible to get B's (HS GPA: 3.02). This, of course, thrilled my parents.
Don't worry, just do what you know is right, and then 10 years from now you can all sit around the dining room table one Easter and laugh about all the crap you caught them doing, and the stuff you didn't.
Some of this is that they are entering what Mark calls the I, Me, Mine phase, where their entire world comes down to pleasing themselves, thinking only of themselves, and lots of time looking in mirrors. Teenagers are, by and large, I think, completely self-absorbed. Which is in some ways appropriate because they are growing into the people they will be. Having said that, it does not excuse selfishness.
Sigh. You bought that child an Easter basket? Pats head because that was so nice of you, even if she didn't quite get how nice you were being.
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