For those of you with younger children, you probably have not experienced the amazing process of actually getting dumber and dumber in your children’s eyes. For those with pre-teens, you’ve probably started to get the feeling that something is amiss. By adolescence, we parents have become certifiable idiots and our children wonder on a regular basis how we manage to get ourselves dressed in the morning or make any decisions requiring intellect at all. What I am starting to wonder, however, is when I get to be smarter again?
The last thing my teenagers want to admit is that I might actually know something about life, or current events, or how to do anything. In fact, the reality that I have somehow managed to survive for forty years has completely escaped them. All they can do is look at me with that mixture of pity and embarrassment that is so common of the teenage set and wonder how such brilliant offspring could have been born from such an ignorant and challenged woman.
The other day, my eldest daughter was lamenting about all the paperwork and decisions to be made as she thinks about choosing a college. I offered to help her when she is ready. I thought, perhaps, my background in grant writing and research might come in handy—not to mention my life experience. Her response was to wonder what I could possibly know about applying to colleges! I suppose the fact that I, too, managed to get a Bachelor’s degree, and work, and raise a family have completely disqualified me from being of any assistance.
Well, I’ve been promised that I will gradually start to get smarter again in the eyes of my children. Or, it may happen all at once and they will wake up realize that I’m not the dunce they thought I was during these lovely teenage years.
See Also: I Forgot… and It’s No Big Deal