Older and Wiser…

Restored from the Empower Network archive (2011–2017), lightly edited to meet our current advertising standards. Views are the original author’s.

Or Older and…. Old????

I’m not old by any means.  But still felt weird when I just discovered that this cool girl I’ve been following on Twitter is just 13…. ummmm…ok?

Is it legal to be on Twitter at 13?

Now, I’m not sure why that should make a difference to me at all.  I almost went and hit the unfollow button, but had to stop myself and think…. is it right to judge someone just because of their age?

I don’t post anything inappropriate for a 13 year old to read online (usually), so there is no harm in her following me.  And until realizing her age I had enjoyed her tweets, so it’s not like she’s going to suddenly start talking about ponies and unicorns…. or sex, or whatever 13 year olds are into these days.

This begs the question, at what age do you respect the opinions of others.

When you put it like that shouldn’t you respect everyone’s opinions?

When my two year old tells me that I’m beautiful right after also saying that the mashed up Dominos pizza menu is “gorgeous” I tend to take it with a grain of salt.

But how long does that last?

How long until we can consider her opinion valid?

And come to think of it, that Domino’s pizza menu does look kinda cool the way the colours come out more and it seems to lose its meaning once it’s been crumpled up.

You could attach a green pipe cleaner to it and voila, instant cool artsy flower thing!

I always say I hate when people act like my kids are my accessories or a handbag to deal with, yet is discounting someone for being 13 not kinda the same thing?

I recently saw the new version of 21 Jumpstreet.

There was a scene where the cops are planning their entry back into high school, they explain what’s considered cool in high school (things like wearing your backpack with one strap, acting non-chalant, etc).

To me it sounded like a pretty accurate assessment of what’s cool in high school.

When they arrive at the school they realize that “cool” has changed.  People wear two straps on their back-packs, they care about social issues, and they have completely unrecognizable social groups.

I sat there a little stunned and said to Mike, “Do you think that’s really what it’s like now?”

I guess I’m going to my ten year high-school reunion this year so I’m not really that in touch with high school these days…. but it’s something you feel like you could fall back into at any time.

High school feels like this constant, this thing everyone does so it must always be the same.  But I guess when I watch an 80’s high school movie that looks equally alien to me.

I’m still a 90’s girl at heart.  I think skinny jeans on boys looks disgusting….I still have a weird urge to make mix tapes and get “Rachel” layers in my hair.

I struggle with being too old to identify with “kids these days” and young enough to understand what it’s like to be them and not be taken seriously.

So to weird 13 year old social networkers…. I’ll give you a chance, we’ll stay friends… but start quoting Twilight or talking about how “hot” Justin Paedo-bait Bieber is and you’ve lost me!

(Wonder if some 13 year old will read this and think I’m really out of touch if I think they still like Twilight and Justin Beiber…but I literally don’t know anything else about what kids are into!

Shit, in 11 years I’m going to embarrass my daughter so ridiculously much I’ll have to drop her to school 5 blocks away!)