It's hard when Colin comes home now. He's doing his own thing on campus three hours from here and we are going on with life as usual at home--without him. It's tough to connect right away, and we all need a few hours to adjust to be parent/kid again. I get it, I used to go through this when I went home from college many moons ago.I try not to ask too many questions right away, but I long to know about his new life as a college student. I do the typical "How are your classes?", "How is work?", "How is your roommate?"--but those are just met with eye rolls and grunts as his response. But I'm not sure how to get him to open up without asking questions. Mix that in with his natural reaction of "How did I stand these people before?" and we've got an adjustment period.
Last weekend, we were running with band competitions and he was off with his friends. I think there was a total of 3 hours that we were actually together the whole weekend, so I was working on catching up with sonny boy. We did a little chit-chatting over dueling computers and finally he starting talking about a project that he was working on with a friend.
Bingo.
He told me all about the project and how they had to work together to do some computer programming or something. They were both stymied and grew frustrated, to which Col said "He's such a fetus." Hmmmmm. That's a new one.
Okay, so honestly, I try to stay hip with the lingo and the tunes. I actually know some of the cool songs and can sing a line or two....correctly--which is like 10 steps past Joe in this parenting gig. Both kids keep me abreast of what words mean these days, but I haven't heard this one used as a slam.
So, he keeps talking about how they kept working but the other kid just wanted to give up. Colin kept pushing him, trying this method and that, encouraging him to keep going so that they would get a good grade. Apparently the kid wanted to just give up on the project and that frustrated Colin to no end.
I understood the story, but I didn't get the fetus connection and I had to ask.
"Col? Uh.....how come he's a 'fetus'? Is he acting like a baby or something? I mean, I don't get the term...."
To which he answers,
"DEFEATIST, Mom. I said he was a 'DEFEATIST'!"
Oh.
(and I channel Emily Litella) Well, that's very different. Never mind.
So much for connecting.
21 comments:
HA! Good Connection there, Lin! LOL
I can't laugh too much...I am in the same boat with my 16-almost-17 year old son!!! :)
Perhaps you are thinking about babies and hence the fetus? I do understand what you mean about letting go and bridging that gap between adult and teen. I went through it a few years back too. But it sounds as though your son is really a wonderful person and that means you've done a great job.
Bawha! Too funny! Isn't the hearing the last thing to go? :)
Have a terrific weekend Lin!
xo Catherine
I had an adult friend say My Bad to me a couple years and and I thought oh ok he meant to say I'm bad but even that didn't make sense in the context. Then I started hearing it said everywhere. Ugh.
I am cool...even if my teen doesn't realize it!
NOT!
I am just beginning to enter the land of teen age eye rolls and smartypants comments...joy!
Ha! and Aha.
Want me to take you to haring check appointment? Admitting we can't hear is the first step, or at least one of them, to accepting we are growing older. ;-) LOL
Never mind,
Well Lin... I don't want you on my team when we play the game Chinese Telephone!
Oh how you always make me belly laugh!
Wen
Don't you hate it when they come home and start viewing the parents as dullards? I am afraid your slip-up only added fuel to this flame....
But at least you didn't say this in front of his friends--which is what I would have done. You are way too cool.
I miss Emily Litella! I miss classic SNL. Oh, now I see I'm off topic. Never mind.
Boys can low talk and you miss half the word. I so get it...
At least he was talking to you and at least he wasn't a fetus too.
Fetus...I LIKE it. I think You (and Colin) inadvertently may have started a new hip/slang word. "such a fetus" sounds pretty cool to me. This morning 5am I saw a car try to cut off a semi, and the semi driver rolled down his window and screamed at the top of his lungs daring him to "go further MF'er...go ahead...GO FURTHER". The road rage might have even been defused if he simply called him a MF FETUS : >) Fran's Dad
I can't hear worth a darn so I probably would have heard fetus too...lol My kids are always threatening to get me a hearing aid for Chrismtas. For some reason boys are harder for me to hear than girls and they all tend to talk really fast. Or then again, maybe it's just me :)
HAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA!!!!!
God I love you.
HAAAAAAAAA!!
I see he is doing excellently in Mumbling Class...
LOL
LOL! Didn't he find that a tad bit funny that you heard 'fetus'? I would have!
A.Marie--You know! I try so darn hard to be cool about things....and then I completely blow it. Do we get points for trying???
Mtn Woman--When is the job done? I haven't figured that out yet. I'm in that funky stage of mom/not mom, which is weird.....for all of us.
Catherine--I guess I was expecting some cool lingo and therefore I got it....in my own mind. Gees, I'm an idiot.
Helene--Isn't it funny how it takes us so long to catch on now?? Thank god for Urban Dictionary online--I refer to that often.
Diana--Yeah, me too. :) We are cool in our own special way.
Melodie--Hang on for dear life, pally!! It's a rough ride. Watch MTV--it helps a LOT.
Vanilla--I am an idiot. ;)
Jodi--Add to it that everything he says is mumbled and to his computer screen. Sigh.
Grace--:) And to think I call Joe that name all the time. Uh oh.
Wen--I'm such an idiot, Wen. Joe and I make such a great team, don't we??
Betty--No kidding! Now he KNOWS we are idiots! Crap.
Patricia--I got lucky on this one!
DJ--I did try to see if there was a clip on YouTube to use, but there was only montages of Gilda there. Then I lost like 15 minutes going through them and missing her. She was great, wasn't she?
Pricilla--Yep, you got it! He talks low, slurry, and into his computer screen most of the time. It's a wonder I understand anything!
Fran's Dad--I like it too! It's like one step below being a baby, right? I think you've got something there, Mike. Can you see the guy's face being called a 'fetus' by a big truck driver???! ;)
Ann--The kids all talk so fast--like all the words are crammed together into one. I can't understand a darn thing here! And Joe is worse! He misses everything!
Peewee--I'm glad you had a good chuckle at my expense. ;) I'm such an idiot.
Rebecca--Yep. You know!! It's not just me.
Beaded Tail--Nope. He doesn't think anything I do or say is funny. I laughed and laughed---at myself. That just made it worse.
Ha! That's pretty good! At least he's talking...little by little:)
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