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I know we compare what we did to our parents, to what our kids are now putting us through. Heavy metal and screaming, I mean singing, are heard from one of my kid's room. They will be seventeen. I have already heard, "Mom, music is my life." My two older kids have eyebrow and lip and tongue and belly button and nose and even, yes, throat piercings. Attention is the goal, and they are getting it. My middle child tells me little kids yell to their mothers in a store, to look at how cool their piercings are. I doubt she has to worry, it'll be something else by the time her little one gets in his twenties.
I gave my parents a hard time, but it was always about going out, never music or piercings or tattoos, although I did get one when I was twenty one. It's small and inconspicuous, but the kids of today want full body tattoos, which I do not like in any way, shape or form. These things are permanent, they won't wash off. It is also an isolation from society, since the normal, average Joe doesn't understand these kids need to feel "different." I have been tempted to pluck all the piercings out during sleep, but thought better of it!
It's so hard to get through to them that when they are thirty and forty, and need a good job to pay for their families, these "works of art" won't help them in any way. They have no idea what it feels like to be a responsible parent, and that just maybe, they won't want to be feeding their child a bottle as it looks up into the devil's eye, with skeletons to boot. And when that does happen, it will be too late to wash away their art.
However, just because I don't like them, I don't judge anyone who has them. That's their thing, they're not hurting anybody, just trying to find their niche, although I have expressed my negative opinion of them all over the body to my kids. If it is in a spot where it won't show, should they ever want to actually be a part of society, that's one thing. They get the advantage of covering it when needed, and seeing it when wanted.
If I didn't have kids in their twenties, and have known their friends for years, and know that they are good kids with good hearts, I think I'd be afraid of the tattooed, pierced wonders walking around out there. Through experience, I have come to accept their desire to stand out.
They match the music they listen to, there's a connection there. I liked Stevie Knicks and Elton John, so my parents were spared the heavy metal "music" of today. I just wore black capes and platform shoes! Every generation has something, but why can't my kids just want to wear bell bottoms? That was a big thing when they first came out. That's as far as I went. I remember my mother not wanting me to wear them.
I don't think I'd like to sit for hours while needles are going in and out of my flesh. I have a small rose right below the belt line, and I thought I was going to pass out from the pain. These tattoos of today are monstrous. The more the better, the bigger the better.
There are worse things they could do, like all the drugs that are widely available, or the alcohol. People should take heart, and realize that these kids aren't bad, they don't mean anybody any harm, they just want to stand out so they can feel happy. It's unfortunate that they have to turn to those measures, but hey, do we disown them for their choices in the placement of ink?
Some feel fine about themselves, they just like the look of a tattoo. I feel, however, that many are filling a void for most kids. I feel bad about that, but each generation shows their pain in a different way.
These kids will usually be smiling when you look at them. It might be nice to smile back. I can guarantee they already smiled at your child.
Susan Thom is the mother of three children, two sons, 17 and 21, and a daughter 22. Writing calms her, and gives her a place to go. By herself! Clears the head and gets it out. She lives in a rural area, with a lake and mountains, her son and her partner, and has loved writing since she was a child.
She certainly hopes you enjoy her take on life, and her style of communicating that in stories.
She has been on a journey of self discovery for twenty years, and has learned many things about the human mind, and how to maintain some semblance of calm and peace within.
If someone reads one of her stories, and relates to her feelings, and maybe gets a suggestion on how she dealt with them in a positive way, that would be the ultimate gift of her writing.
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