Teenager Truism #6

I had a scheduling snafu last week so if you think you've already seen this post, you'd be right. I pulled it and rescheduled it for the intended day, today.

I believe that this:

 Is one slippery step away from this:

Which is one nightmarish night away from this:

 Agree or disagree, that's my opinion.

My kids like to tell me that the Mister and I (me more than him) are more strict than their friends' parents. Considering the things that I've seen their friends get into (sneaking out of our house at 4 am, breaking into the elementary school and stealing, getting mixed up in drugs, etc. Just three things off the top of my head) I'll take the label of Strict and wear it proudly. If being strict keeps my kids out of jail and holds off on my becoming a grandparent a few years longer, then so be it. Ya know??

One thing that the Mister and I are strict and inflexible about it piercings. Ears are fine, body and face are not. The Mister and I paid for each of the girls to get their first holes in their ears and after that, they have to pay for any more ear piercings they'd like to have. The end. Non negotiable.

Another thing is tattoos. They have to wait until they're 18. That's it. The end. Non negotiable.

Hair, on the other hand, we give the girls free reign. The Youngest gets her hair colored naturally by the sun. I'm not kidding. She has highlights in her hair that women pay hundreds of dollars for and all she does is play outside to get hers. Free, blonde highlights courtesy of the sun. The Oldest has played around with coloring her hair for the last two years. She's used everything on her hair from Splat in a ghoulish red, to the water flavor packets from Crystal Light and Ocean Spray (you know the little packets that you put into a bottle of water? Yeah. Those.) to professional coloring, to dye in a box from Clairol. It's been an...interesting hair journey. I admit, I really hated the red. It was ugly. AND FREAKING MESSY! She ruined towels, clothes, sheets, and stained walls, the tub, and skin with that crap. She can use that stuff until the cows come home as long as she doesn't use it under my roof. EVER AGAIN. She also learned her own lesson when it came to the flavor packets. It seriously dried out her hair and caused it to have massive breakages. I had to take her to my stylist just to fix her hair. Of course, she didn't listen to me when I told her using that stuff was a mistake. My stylist had to tell her and then make her swear to the stylist, that she wouldn't use it again. Nowadays, she just colors her hair a bleach blonde out of a box. Again, it's pretty much ruining her hair and she has naturally curly hair that frizzes and the coloring is only making it worse, but there's no talking to her about it. I'm just her mom who used Sun In and lemons on her hair and has had numerous hair coloring disasters over the years. But what do I know.

Teenager truism:  It's just hair. It may break off, fall out, get chemically burned off, or look like it's out of a low-budget, B movie vampire flick, but it's just hair and will grow out and/or grow back. This comes out of my best piece of parenting advice. If you pay attention to nothing else I say, have ever said, or will ever say, if you're a parent of human children, listen to this:  Pick your battles.