Saturday 25 July 2009

Huh?


I was listening to the radio today about the concept of teenage conversation cards. This is a new one on me. I do understand the concept of 'teenage' and 'conversation' because a) I have teenage girls and b) we are a garrulous bunch in our house. I do have a 10 year old boy though and I've seen how they can be...and it's not pretty. The thought of the top of a spotty teenage head from where the odd grunt will occasionally emerge does not fill me with joy and the signs, though only 10, are there.


"How was school love?"
"O.K."

"What's the new boy like?"
"Alright."


My friend, however has a 16 year old lad who barely speaks to her yet apparently is charm personified for the mothers' of his mates. Go figure!


So as they said on the radio, how about the concept of these teenage conversation cards to spark, lively, engaged discussion around the dining table? E.g."Teenagers should be free to have sex in their own homes from the age of 16 without being questioned - discuss."


How ridiculous. Teenagers never sit round the dining table.


Seriously though, anything that gets conversation going is probably not such a bad idea and may steer it away from the mundane questions they hate to hear. I can just see my lot though, they would raise their eyes to the sky and proceed to take the mick out of mum's latest barmy idea.
And I wonder what next, Nursing Home Conversation Cards, Sitting Next to Someone at a Wedding You Don't Know Conversation Cards - the list could be endless!


6 comments:

  1. Haha....I'm sitting in the kitchen giggling to myself. Where do you get them? The conversation cards LOL.
    I have a teenager grunter & find it very depressing at the thought of the time it may last.

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  2. Never before in the history of the teenager, have there been so many mothers who bend over backwards, educate themselves with every 'how to' book they can find on the subject and worry themselves witless in their efforts to understand, communicate, and bring joy to their monosylabic offspring.

    I you can survive it they do turn into interesting, funny and kind human beings...they metamorphose around 17/18, honestly, about the time they have their first original thought [I remember that moment very well when it happened to me]

    Good luck to all concerned. I love this blog as I can enjoy it from a very safe distance.

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  3. In my house if we had these cards it would probably end up in another reason for a row! I to get much more conversation from my teens friends than my own teen.

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  4. This is assuming that you can get your teenager to engage with you at all, right?!

    Similarly, Grizz is a delight to his friends' mothers - I have been told... And his closest friend loves me 'as I treat him as if he were my second son', he told me... Go figure! Great post, Jo! Fabulous...

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  5. Teenage and conversation is like an oxymorornic phrase non?

    We do sit round the table 1-2 times a week, because nowadays that's as many times as we are in the same place at the same time?

    And converations are short and to the point, I often find I am still talking and they are half way up the stairs to their padded cell, sorry room! Mine is the padded one!

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  6. Gawd - I wonder what i'm doing wrong. We are lucky enough to have a lot of family dinners and my lot never shut up. The teen boy grunts around the house, but when the three of them sit down, it's like a competition to see who can come up with the funniest/most outrageous story at the loudest pitch possible. My poor mother has to go and lie down after meals when she's here.

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