Enjoy Your Youth

Mortgage and tax bills. Blah.

Electric bill. Oh yay… a rate hike.

Oil bill. Almost as high as the mortgage bill for pete’s sake!

Car note. I wanted that fancy new suv (my dream car, after all!), but it doesn’t make me cringe any less.

Water bill. I do love my showers.

Insurance for car and house. A necessary evil. Still though.. Yikes!

As I toss aside the monthly bills, I decide Facebook is worth some time. My 17yo sister is blithering on about how she wants to be grown and go out all the time. She can’t wait until she’s 18 so she can move out and be on her own.

I stare at the post, then at the stack of bills, then back again.

I’ll be honest. I wanted to punch her in the throat for saying it. She has no idea how easy she has it. I commented and told her there would be plenty of time for going out later and to enjoy having no bills or responsibilities. She thinks moving out is the answer to her problems.

It’s not.

Being on your own means you have to care for and provide for yourself. This is something not a lot of teenagers do and since I’m being honest, S is a bit of a lazy-bones. Granted, there are cases in which teens are forced to grow up early and I commend them for making lemonade out of lemons, but this is different.

While heading to our sister’s wedding this past weekend, I had a chance to clarify what I said. “To put it simply, being an adult sucks.” She laughed and I told her I understand the parents are strict and may even seem a little nuts at times, but in their heads and hearts, they feel they are doing the right thing.

It was interesting being able to offer insight from both the kid and parent side of things. I told her to finish school, decide on college or not and try to map out some sort of path for her life before she worries about going out and partying.

Whether she takes my advice or not is yet to be seen. She turns 18 in January so I guess time will tell….