How many times have you heard the lines “mum, you don’t know what you are talking about”? or “you wouldn’t understand”.
Funny that, having lived just a tad longer than the mouth the words are coming from. Try me, you never will know what I understand until you talk to me. No grunting please, no quick dismissal as if you had just got me out for a duck. You might find out that I do know what I’m talking about. I seem to remember that I was a young adult once, trying on the same tactic with my parents and finding out quickly and I mean very quickly with a clip round the ear if said parent wasn’t dodged in time, that they did know what they were talking about. The thing is, knowing what we are talking about and translating it into ‘their’ speak is a challenge in itself.
Getting across the message in a fashion that doesn’t upset the cauldron, so to speak, is like learning another language. “I’m only suggesting say I”, without managing to finish any sentence. “No, you are not, you are trying to ruin everything” say them who know it all. In fact, I have no intention of ‘ruining’ anything, I was just going to suggest an easier route for a more favourable outcome (with the hindsight of experience and the ‘flat on my face’ look I carried around for a while) ‘but no, you carry on’ I think to myself. Go your own way and find out for yourself, I did, but…as the saying goes “don’t come crying to me when it doesn’t go as you would like’ or in your speak, ‘tit’s up’!
“get in the right lane mum, overtake the idiot mum. What the hell? What are you doing, go round them? “Son”, say I. “Don’t you think it strange that I’m only giving you a lift because you have your smashed car in the garage/lost your licence/want to have a drink with your mates?” “How on earth do you think I managed to get you to all your footy games over the years without being able to drive properly?” Funny that.
“It’s strange too that I understand how a night out would be great (given the chance). I was a really good dancer when I was your age …………….”. With the eyebrows raised and a look of ‘yeah right’. I’m just waiting (as generations before did) for grandkids and KARMA ?
Mind you, I don’t think they ever grow out of youth speak, it just grows with them as they approach their early adult years and later years.
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