Episode 70: The Passage of Time and Questionable Traditions

A tweet this week from Catherine about a 14-year-old in her carpool lamenting "where did my life go?" inspired this week's first chat topic -- because where did our lives go, and why do kids seem to feel their lives are moving as fast as ours? We talked about the aging properties of seeing the edgy entertainers of your youth becoming cherished institutions (happy retirement, David Letterman!) and, in your own youth, finding out that the pop singers you enjoy are younger than your own young self (it's tough being the same age as Taylor Swift). At any rate, we agreed to all meet at Nicole's retirement fantasy home for bingo and bocce ball real soon.

One way to mark the passage of time is annual traditions, and we talked about one that's common at the high school behind Terri's house: a "don't drink and drive at prom" pageant involving a cracked up car, ambulance, body bags, staged teenage wailing, and a guy on a loudspeaker. Do presentations like this really convince kids who intended to drink and drive to stop, or do they just freak out the kids who would never do anything wrong but are easily spooked? We chatted about after-graduation events, the need to talk about not texting and driving as well as not drinking and driving, and the importance of "do what I do" over "do what I say."

Finally, we shared our recommendations for the week: Catherine has an article on 22 outdoor activities to do with your family (because it's Memorial Day weekend, ready or not); Amanda thinks you should use the weekend to go geocaching (on which Catherine has two articles); Nicole suggests visiting the website www.donttextdrive.com; and Terri has gathered links to all of Noah Galloway's dances on Dancing With the Stars for those who want to view them again or learn more about the army vet who danced with one arm and a prosthetic leg.

Thanks as always to Jon Morin for producing our episode and Kristin Eredics for our happy in-and-out music. (If you're reading this description somewhere without hyperlinks, come to http://parentingroundabout.com for the full recap experience.)