How not to embarrass your teenager...

I try not to embarrass my teenager, but it seems like my efforts are basically wasted(unless he is acting spoiled in public... then I can get loud and obnoxious and knock him down a few pegs into humility with just my voice and the "evil eye"... my mother was a great teacher of example). I remember being a teenager all to well, and I am oh so familiar with the "want to crawl in a hole" feeling. But honestly, I try not to make it too awful miserable for my kid.

Well last week I filled the "cup of embarrassment" for the entire year. We are walking into the front of the school for parent teacher conferences and I walked up towards the wheelchair ramp to the sidewalk... and I wasn't looking straight down, but mostly using my peripheral vision, when suddenly I was face down on the sidewalk. Why would they put a curb in the middle of the ramp... it was ramped on the left, and ramped on the right, but only in the middle where I was walking, was a 10 inch curb sticking up.

I won't lie, it hurt. I scuffed up my knee and both hands trying to catch myself. I was embarrassed, but I knew my kid, once he knew I was okay, would never talk to me again. I got up and hobbled inside to wait in painful lines to talk to each and every one of his teachers. He didn't say much at the time, but later joked with his Dad about having to spend the day with "Miss Congeniality"... until I put a stop to the jokes. At least he hasn't disowned me. However, I wasn't through with dumb moves for the week.

We got an invitation to a reception of the older brother to 2J's good friend.

I couldn't find just the right card, so even though I am not "scrappy" yet, just a wannabe,... I made a card with some vellum and white ribbon and lace I had in the sewing kit. I thought it looked wedding-ish.

But, again 2J's was not impressed by my homemade efforts, even though I tried to convince him that hand made was much better than store bought.

I bought what I thought was pretty silver wrapping paper for the gift... only to get it home and opened to discover it was clear! My husbands first question was "didn't you read the label". Mr. label reader himself!!

I had nothing else to use outside of Christmas wrap, and no time to go back to the store, so I wrapped it in foil and covered it with the clear celophane to make it look like it was on purpose. 2J's was horrified at my mistake, but I managed to stay upright during the reception and not dribble food down my front.