The road beside the high school is in the process of getting a much needed sidewalk. Currently, teenagers walk all over the road, oblivious to the fact that they are endangering themselves. The sidewalks are intended to reduce the mobs of teenagers darting out in front of cars before and after school. I commented to Sarah that I was surprised the teens hadn’t vandalized the cement before it set. “Well, that’s because every afternoon the workers stand and block the new part of sidewalk from students.” I told her that sounded like a very wise decision by the contractor. “But if they won’t let the students write in it, they should at least let the people who made the sidewalk leave their hand prints.” I tried to explain that it was a sidewalk and not a work of art, but this conversation just went round and round.
Sarah decided to help us paint the living room. She did so complaining the entire time. “We should have left the walls all splotchy.” Doug and I tried to explain that the first coat of paint was splotchy, but each additional coat would help even out the color. “It looks better with lots of variation in the color. Solid walls are boring.” Doug and Sarah danced around and around a few more times before I finally relented and told Sarah I will let her have one wall in the house to paint however she wants.
It would be really fun if the world was a giant art gallery and everything was unique and creative, but deep down, this isn’t about art. This is about a teenager who just enjoys being contrary.
And this post is about you being old. 🙂
My son is starting to argue with me about everything or turn things around on me to make me feel bad. Example: I saw a horrible cut on his finger yesterday. Freaking out and demanding what happened, he says ” I bumped into one of those big paper cutters at school and caught it before it hit the ground.”
And I say “why would you do such a thing, screw the paper cutter, you could have lost your finger!!” and he goes “Well you would have yelled at me for you having to replace the paper cutter so I tried to save it” and I was like “uh, no, I would have been more upset at you having no finger!!”. And then he says, “well, actually, I didn’t know what I had bumped into until I grabbed it.”
Just a teenager trying to mark me as overbearing.He’s been so easy up until this point. Now I hope I don’t kill him before 18,
My teenager quit his (contract, work-from-home, programming) job last week and told us five days later. And how was your day? 🙂
“Sponge painting” (intential splotching) is quite popular, so while it can’t “all” be art, she may not be as “off the wall” as you think.