Girl Talk

Parents.. I really want us to start paying attention to the people our children hang around as well as the things they say and do.

I remember growing up and not even begin able to lock my bedroom door. We had 1 phone in the house and it was located in my parents bedroom. After school there was no hanging out, you went straight home and helped your siblings with there homework. My father actually dropped me to school and picked me up everyday until the 9th grade. I hated it then, but I wished more dads/moms where able to take their daughters to and from school. Maybe then I wouldn't have to listen to  the conversations I hear on the train from girls ranging from ages 12-18. The things I hear would make a retired stripper cringe.

At 12-13 years old, I was still playing with my dolls and sneaking to watch The Simpons on a Sunday night. I was still having sleep overs with my friends from school. We would eat sour powers and make up dance routines until we got tired and fell asleep. My Saturday's at 16 yrs old consisted of doing chores and then going to the mall to buy cookies and a Disney glass. You know the ones that would somehow break by Wednesday night. (Who Knew??).  Don't get it twisted, I partied with the best of them by the time I was 16 yrs old, but I still remained a well rounded, respectable teenager who was deafly afraid of my father.

So it really hurts my soul to hear these young girls talk about things that are to be left private and subjects they shouldn't even be talking about in public. I'm talking about little girls having big woman conversations on the damn 4 train around 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon.  Why is it that OUR girls think it's OK to tell her 3 friends that she let a guy she likes put his hand down her pants while they kissed in the school staircase?  Why is it that a girl is proud to say "My mother doesn't care about me and I dare her to take away my phone I will punch her in the face". Why am I subjected to hear about these things on my way home?  Why do they think it's OK to talk this way in public? I know why...There is a generation of parents out there that has given up. They gave up because the system said we can't beat our children, they gave up because the people in church touch our children, they gave up because the cost of living went up and even Grandma who usually stayed home to help raise the kids has to work. Sometimes I feel to just shake these little girls. Other times I want to give them a hug. I would be so hurt to hear my child talk that way, especially in public.

I tell my son everyday that I hope he is not one of those teens on the bus/train talking loud and reckless. (Side note: If you hear or see my son acting in this manner please don't be afraid to report the incident to me.) Because I am that parent who will not give up. I demand the utmost respect from my children in private and in public and I also remind them that I fight little kids.

I know times have changed, but the one thing that should not change is the self respect our girls have for themselves and their families.

Take me back to the days when little girls went in a corner and giggled about a guy crush to her friends, then they played dress-up and organized dance routines to perform at Thanksgiving dinner.