Whew...I just got back from a whirlwind trip to Florida. The trip served a dual purpose--I took my teenage daughter down there for Spring Break, and I visited some Florida agents to try to encourage referral business.
As far as being in close proximity to my teenage daughter for five days...I really should get combat pay!! Don't get me wrong, she's a good kid...but she's still a teenage girl and--like all teenage girls--she seems to be genetically hard-wired to find every possible "hot button" in her mom and push it!!
First of all, finding a neutral radio station was an exhausting task by itself! Call me old-fashioned, but I have a problem with songs like "I'm in Love with a Stripper," but my daughter thinks having to listen to country or classical is akin to cruel and unusual punishment.
On the way down, we had a conversation about tattoos--what did I think of them, what would I think if SHE got one --"just a tiny one, in a spot where no one could see it" (then what the heck is the point...not that I'd want her to get a big one where everyone could see it, either!). I told her that I didn't have a problem with tattoos, per se--I know lots of people with perfectly lovely tattoos--but, I didn't like the idea of my baby getting one.
The day after we got to Fort Myers, my daughter and her grandmother went to the beach. When they got home that evening, the first thing I spotted on my daughter was the rosary bead tattoo wrapped around her ankle and the top of her foot (so much for a tiny one where no one could see it)!! Her grandmother then proudly showed us the tattoo on her upper thigh she had gotten to cover up her hip replacement scar (we should all have the zest for life this wonderful woman has!!).
After a minute of stunned silence--during which time I had to fight back my urge to do serious bodily harm to my daughter (and you know any jury would have acquited me!!)--I realized that it was too late to make a huge fuss--the damage was done. And, just between you and me, I had to grudgingly admit that my daughter's tattoo did look kind of cool. So, I took a deep breath and said how nice their tattoos looked. (In my mind, I reserved the right to ground my daughter until she turned 21...She and I would have that conversation later).
It wasn't until we were having dinner about two hours later that they both told us that the tattoos were just henna and would be gone in a week or two. Ha-ha.
When all was said and done, my daughter and I really did have a wonderful time together. I think she was kind of impressed by how "cool" I was about her tattoo.
The only scary part? Now my daughter knows how I'll react if she really does get a tattoo! Maybe I SHOULD ground her until she turns 21...just to be sure...
In my next post, I'll tell you how the business part of the trip went!
Comments(15)