Caught myself being an a$$hole parent...

Course corrected quickly.

Hi lover-faces.

Two confessions: I cannot stop listening to the Taylor album. And I cannot stop eating Welch’s Fruit Chews.

I had to get that off of my chest…it’s the Catholic girl in me.

Anyway, I caught myself encouraging (read: kinda bullying) my 17 year old into college classes this summer…purely to pad her college applications. Yuck. I don’t even believe in that shit, but there I was…saying the words. “Why don’t we just try…”

WHO THE HELL IS THE “WE” HERE? I wouldn’t be doing jack-shit…it would be her summer ruined.

Because I have raised children to call me on my crap, she just looked at me and said, “No, and I don’t even know why you are asking me.” Ouch.

She and I both knew that she needs copious amounts of alone time, with her art, to feel good. She needs silence. She needs to not have assignments and due dates all of the time…her brain can handle them, but she is a true artist. She needs to stare at the clouds. I would argue will all need more of that, but alas.

Upon her direct “no,” I could have kept at it, but I quickly course-corrected. “Sorry, I had a momentary lapse of reason.”

And we moved on.

But I was amazed…decades of emotional work on myself and still, poof! There I was, pushing my kid, calling it (in my mind) “improvement,” “good for her,” and “a good move.”

I write columns about this nonsense; this pushing and pressure on kids.

And by the way, the college classes are neither good nor bad. They simply are. The need for them, the emotional draw…that’s what matters.

Ooof.

By the way, my kid introduced me to this artist and she is “fire” (as the youngins’ say).