Up until a few weeks ago I thought I was a pretty cool and hip mom, that is, until my nieces came to stay with me. That’s when I discovered my reality of cool and hip is more of a fantasy. The fact that I actually use the word “hip” should probably have been my first clue. I will say in my defense, that when Dora the Explorer, plastic jewelry, and catching frogs are the latest and greatest cool thing EVER to your kids… it’s not that hard to jump to cool status in their eyes. So you can see how I was confused.
My nieces are more into the “pre-teen” scene and I quickly caught on that I’m not. My first tip off was when they were listening to music and a song came on that I had never heard before, when I asked who the girl singing was, I was told it was Justin Bieber… ooops. Side Note: To further my point, I just had to Google Justin Bieber to find out how to spell his name. Also, I found that I couldn’t understand the words to most of the songs that were playing. I decided I couldn’t abandon my façade of being young, cool and hip… so I latched on to a few of the repetitive words and got down and boogied with the youngins. We had a fun time with lots of laughs, at my expense, of course, and in the end I was left with a headache - does that make me not cool or just old? Or both?
Later that night, I was thinking of how I should probably broaden my level of coolness to actually include things that are considered cool to the youngsters. Other than Dora, plastic jewelry and catching frogs, of course. For the record, I don’t really think catching frogs is all that cool, but sometimes ya just gotta fake it for the sake of the kid. I sure could have used my frog catching kid the other night at 1:00 o’clock in the morning, when I got up to use the restroom and almost stepped on the frog who was hopping around in front of the bathroom door. After two jumps back and a loud scream, I had to go wake up my husband (who was literally 2 feet away from me – he’s a sound sleeper) to chase down the little hopper and release him back into the wild. I’m still not sure of how the frog found its way into the house, but I do recall in the past, once at the dinner table and another time not at the dinner table having to tell Jase to get the frog out of his pocket and take it back outside. So I can only assume…
Ok, back to me trying to expand my coolness status. I want to be seen as a “cool” mom by my kids as they get older. I remember when I was a youngster, and I’m just being honest here, I never really thought of my mom as young, hip and cool, she was… mom - a grown up, who listened to the oldies, and crushed on Tom Selleck and that dude from Fall Guy. Soooo not cool in my “too cool for school” preteen years! The irony here is that now that I’m a grown-up (and a mom) I’m a fan of oldies music and I totally love ALL things 80’s (with the exception of big bangs and that Aqua Net hairspray stuff), so does that mean I won't be considered cool to my kids when they are in their preteen years? And if so, how do I change that?
As I sit here now and try to think of ways to become more cool, I'm realizing that the reason I can't come up with an answer is because I'm getting to far ahead of myself. My kids are really cool and what they like today is what they consider cool, so I only have to worry about what they think is cool at the moment. Who cares if I mistake Justin What's His Face for a girl or I can't understand the words to the latest POP song. At the moment, my coolness reality is telling my kids that our dinner was, in the words of Dora, delicioso, and wearing the pink plastic beaded necklace while I fold laundry, or giving a two-thumbs up for catching the biggest frog.
I’m pretty flexible and open to change, I mean, I spend more time watching the Disney Channel and enjoying it then I do anything else. And I know all the words to the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song, ooh and that Selena Gomez song, I Love You Like a Love Song, Baby - even though I always think, ‘what does that even mean?’ - it’s pretty catchy and I find myself singing it a lot. So maybe being a young, hip, cool mom isn't going to be as hard as I thought. I seem to be on track with being “in the now” with my kids and hopefully will be able to continue as they get older… either that or hope one day the awesomeness of the 80’s will rise again!
As I sit here now and try to think of ways to become more cool, I'm realizing that the reason I can't come up with an answer is because I'm getting to far ahead of myself. My kids are really cool and what they like today is what they consider cool, so I only have to worry about what they think is cool at the moment. Who cares if I mistake Justin What's His Face for a girl or I can't understand the words to the latest POP song. At the moment, my coolness reality is telling my kids that our dinner was, in the words of Dora, delicioso, and wearing the pink plastic beaded necklace while I fold laundry, or giving a two-thumbs up for catching the biggest frog.
I’m pretty flexible and open to change, I mean, I spend more time watching the Disney Channel and enjoying it then I do anything else. And I know all the words to the Wizards of Waverly Place theme song, ooh and that Selena Gomez song, I Love You Like a Love Song, Baby - even though I always think, ‘what does that even mean?’ - it’s pretty catchy and I find myself singing it a lot. So maybe being a young, hip, cool mom isn't going to be as hard as I thought. I seem to be on track with being “in the now” with my kids and hopefully will be able to continue as they get older… either that or hope one day the awesomeness of the 80’s will rise again!
Wish me luck!
