How to Get a Teenager Up before Noon

on a weekend, too!

Cory was up early this morning. He jumped straight into the shower, and emerged a while later dressed and ready to go - wearing his jeans and his Spider-man t-shirt. Yes, the perfect way to get a teenage boy out of bed before noon on a weekend is to have tickets for the new Spider-man movie. It's a big movie month - big movies are coming out, and Spider-man 3 is the first of them. The new Marcus Majestic Theater opened Thursday night just in time for the midnight release of Spider-man 3. It's a good thing it did, too, because otherwise there would have been no UltraScreen to watch the movie on. That would have been a shame! That movie belongs on the UltraScreen - all that action just begs to be HUGE!

The new movie theater offers Reserved Seats - so we tried that. Usually, when we want to see a new movie on the UltraScreen, we have to show up an hour early and wait in line, just to be sure we get good seats. While I think that is part of the experience, it was also nice being able to walk right in and have seats waiting for us - prime seats, too. They were front-row in the balcony area - at the perfect level so we didn't have to look up or down, but had a perfect view of the screen and all the action. The Reserved Seats do cost a little extra, so I'm not so sure that is something we will always do, but it was nice to try. I suppose it will depend on the movie. You know when Pirates comes out, we'll want the best seats possible.

The movie was very enjoyable. It started immediately, with no previews. I really like the way the Spider-man movies bring you up to date on what has already happened in the opening credits. Lots of times when we are going to see a movie sequel, we watch the previous movies first just to reacquaint ourselves with the story, but we didn't do that this time. We just ran out of time. So it was good to have the quick review in the opening of the movie. Spider-man 3 has it all - heroes, villains, action, a love story, friendship, and forgiveness. There is plenty of excitement to keep you on the edge of your seat, and a good story to tie it all together. See it. You'll like it.

Teens and Money

We went to the bank this afternoon and set up a checking account and a savings account for Beth. Our bank offers what is called a High School account - no minimum balance required because the account is linked with the parents' account. I wasn't seriously thinking about setting up the accounts until the day Cory left for Boston. He was going away from home with a wallet full of cash, and it occurred to me that it would have been nice for him to have a debit card to use. Too late for that - and the minimum age for this High School checking account is 15, so he wouldn't have qualified anyway. Next trip...

Beth is planning to get a job soon, so having a checking account will be good. Once she finds that job, she can sign up for Direct Deposit so she can get her paychecks put right into her account. That way she won't have to worry about picking up her checks or getting to the bank to cash them. Even if she doesn't do the Direct Deposit thing, she will at least be able to cash paychecks without needing one of us and our account. Besides that, it will make it easier to give her money if we don't happen to have cash on hand. That doesn't mean she just gets money any time she want some - whatever she may believe. It will be good for her to learn to keep track of the money in her account - something she needs to know how to do.

Also this week I got her a Discover card - this one for putting gas in the car only. I think she'll do ok with that. She is very adamant about not using credit cards - ever. Good for her. I hope she sticks to that. Getting into credit card debt is a very bad thing. The Discover card? Just convenience, so we don't have to be sure she has the cash with her, and we get a 5% cashback bonus on gas purchases. I always pay that off every month.

How Much Privacy?

Regarding reading her teen's online journals and posts, here's what one mom says:

This is definitely an issue that we deal with at our house! It reminds we that I am definitely in a different generation - dare I say "old fashioned". I think my husband and I don't understand the value of posting all kinds of personal information for strangers to read. Back in the day, we remember actually WRITING a note on a piece of a paper, and heaven forbid it was actually read by someone other than the intended recipient!

Our philosophy is that online information is public. It resides in the public domain and in fact, our daughter is putting it out there for the public. Consequently, she must be prepared for ALL of the public to read it - including her family members (we have internet savvy grandparents, too). Putting a privacy blocker doesn't make something "private" only available to certain eyes. Even these websites can be hacked into. Our rules are as follows, if it is posted online I will read it. If it is posted through our home computer, be prepared to share your password with me and understand their might be a key stroke log provided to me (which would
detail any and all instant message conversations, history of internet usage, etc.) I read and explore the site frequently. It is quite eye opening. I am shocked by not only things my daughter has posted, but her friends, too.
While I wouldn't dare post the kinds of things my daughter and her friends do, my reading these sites has lead us to many important discussions - what do people think of you when you post certain things? How can you communicate appropriately and effectively? Protecting her privacy and allowing her to self edit her postings making sure that nothing identifying (name, address,
school etc) is included has also helped her understand the importance of protecting herself.

I would recommend that you sit with your daughter, ask her to show you how to use myspace, set up your own (that's what I did) and use it as a learning experience. She might like that she is teaching you something. She'll be the expert. Understand her objectives and use the time to discuss your house rules about postings, instant messaging, etc. If your daughter is embarrassed or nervous for you to read her postings, perhaps she shouldn't be posting! Everyone has private thoughts and needs to get them out - on the phone, hanging with friends, at sleep overs, and even in a paper journal!
There are so many places that privacy can be enjoyed, but the internet is not one of them!

from Daughters Community Forum

Resources

Beth thinks she should have more freedom than she has. Mostly it sounds like she wants to be free to do whatever she wants to do, and she doesn't feel that we have the right to ask her where she's going to be and who she's going to be with. I went looking for some information on dealing with teenagers because I really don't know how much freedom she should have. So far she hasn't shown that she deserves more freedom. Every time she does get to do something, she has to push the issue and wants more. It seems nothing is ever good enough. Then if she doesn't agree with something we tell her, she'll go ahead and do it anyway - and then it's all our fault because we shouldn't have told her no in the first place. When she gets in trouble, she gets upset with us and doesn't seem to understand she did anything wrong. If there were no rules, then she wouldn't be able to break them, and then she'd never get in trouble. At least that seems to be her logic.

Some online resources on raising teenagers that I want to check out more:

• Raising Successful Teenagers
• When Your Teen Rejects Your Values
  

Grades

We got the kids' report cards last week. Beth is doing much better this year - only because she has to get a B average to keep her driving privileges. It's very important because her insurance costs are 1/3 cheaper when we get the good student discount. Other than the desire she has to drive, she has no motivation to get or maintain good grades. It's really sad because she was a very good student up until 8th grade. Then suddenly she stopped caring or trying. No matter what we say to her she just doesn't see any need to do well in school. She doesn't see how this will translate into real life and how what she does now will either open up or limit her possibilities in the future. I don't remember ever thinking about the future when I was in school. It didn't matter why I was learning this stuff or doing this work. The fact was that I was doing it now and I was going to do the best possible job while doing it. Her lack of caring just makes no sense to me.

Beth didn't quite make her B average for the quarter, but has to get there by the semester grade. The really puzzling part is that we got the results from the 10th grade standardized tests they took in November. She scored in the Advanced level in one subject area and in the Proficient level, but just a few points away from Advanced, in several other subjects. Obviously the girl is smart. When we asked her about the differences here, her explanation was that the questions on the test were really easy. *shaking my head*

I think we would be ok with her grades if we knew that was the best she could do - even at the expense of losing the good student discount for insurance. However, knowing that she can do better but chooses not to is really hard to deal with. All her teachers are the same way. They know she can do better and expect more from her than she is giving. If she honestly could not do better, that would be different.

The Many Sides of Cory

The Many Sides of Cory
Originally uploaded by bcmom.

Cory and I had some fun with a camera and Photoshop tonight. I found some pictures of cloned people, and they were kind enough to link to the tutorials so I could do it too! And I did it. I cloned Cory. Man, my living room is full!

Greaser Babies

Some people have way too much time on their hands! But it's a lot of fun.

Watch Greaser Babies

Disappointment?

from my inbox:

Whenever I'm disappointed with my spot in life, I stop and think about little Jamie Scott.

Jamie was trying out for a part in the school play. His mother told me that he'd set his heart on being in it, though she feared he would not be chosen.

On the day the parts were awarded, I went with her to collect him after school. Jamie rushed up to her, eyes shining with pride and excitement.

"Guess what, Mom," he shouted, and then said those words that will remain a lesson to me.....

"I've been chosen to clap and cheer."

Feast Friends!

The kids had a great time in Rapid City. There were plenty of other teens - some old friends and some new. They all got along wonderfully and seemed to have so much fun no matter what they were doing. They went swimming as often as possible, played "Apples to Apples" and DDR, went bowling, and just hung out together. Now that we're home from the Feast, they are using the Internet to keep in touch.

Here are a few of the young people in front of Mt. Rushmore. 

Note to AudioBlogger Users

Ok, I haven't really used this service much - mostly just a couple of test posts, but I'm kind of disappointed that it's no longer going to be available. :-(
Here's an email I just received:

Hello,

As of November 1, 2006, Audioblogger will no longer accept phone
calls. MP3s made with the service will continue to be hosted and
served but you will no longer be able to use Audioblogger to post
new audio.

Audioblogger is an independent product, run by Odeo, Inc., a small
startup company in San Francisco, CA. We are not affiliated with
Google or Blogger except that we operate and provide the
Audioblogger service.

Given our limited resources, we have to make tough decisions
about what projects to focus on. And we've come to the difficult
decision that Audioblogger demands too many resources, time, and
money for us to continue its operation.

However, there are several other services that offer similar
functionality. Odeo is not affiliated with any of these services,
we only suggest them only in hopes that one or the other will be
a good alternative for you.

Gabcast.com is a free service for recording by phone
Hipcast.com has a seven day free trial and lots of features
Gcast.com is another free service for phone recording

All of the phone posting services listed above are compatible
with Odeo in that they produce podcast feeds, which can be
imported to Odeo. Any audio file at Odeo can be posted on a blog
by copying and pasting some embed code.

Odeo would like to extend a huge thank you to everyone who has
tried Audioblogger. If you are interested in keeping up with our
other blog-friendly projects, please have a look at Twitter.com
and our customizable audio players.

Thanks,
The Odeo Team

Links:
Gabcast - http://gabcast.com
Hipcast - http://hipcast.com
Gcast - http://gcast.com
Odeo Importing - http://www.odeo.com/create/addfeed
Twitter - http://twitter.com
Players - http://odeo.com/channel/102054/embedded_player

It doesn't hurt to keep all these links. Maybe I'll try some of these other audio services. If not me, then Cory.