The Post In Which I Show My Age...

I'm getting old I'll admit that.  Granted I'm not THAT old, but I'm dating myself with this post.  I realize more and more the topic of my conversations is what kids are doing "these days".  To be quite honest it scares the holy crap out of me!!  What was bad when I was a teenager is nothing now.  Kids these days (OMG I can't believe I said that!!!) would laugh at what was "rebellious" in my day.  If I said "I tried my first cigarette at 13" they would say "really?  My parent's buy mine for me since I'm only 16."  That's how much time has changed.  I was scared of my parents, which I think is a good thing!  Today kids tell their parents what they are going to do instead of the other way around.  It totally drives me batty!!!  I have a younger generation of friends on my facebook and the pictures and status' that they post in mind blowing!  Every status has a cuss word (don't get me wrong I say my fair share), but it's as if they can't talk with out dropping the f-bomb.  And the pictures, lord don't even get me started on the pictures.  It's nothing to see a girl posting pictures of her boyfriend kissing all over her, or her friends grabbing her crotch.  I don't get it.  I mean some of the kids have older people ( yeah that would be me!) as friends, they do realize that I know their parents and it would be so easy for me to show these parent's what their "baby" is doing.  Sadly, I don't think the kids would even care.  If they cared they wouldn't be posting stuff like that in the first place.  Or maybe their parent's are aware of the stuff they are posting, and are okay with it.   Who knows!  It makes me fearful of what it will be like when my 5 year old is a teenager, or even worse my 3 year old DAUGHTER.....excuse me while I go have a mild panic attack!  I feel like as a society we have gone crazy.  For example the MTV show "Teen Mom" or "16 And Pregnant"  why the heck do we have shows like this on tv?!?!  Why give these kids attention, and MONEY, for their wrongful behavior?  I read an article where MTV said "we produce these shows to let teenagers see how hard these teen moms struggle, so they won't make the same mistakes".  Really?  I'm guessing (going back into my stupid teenage brain) that all they see is a teenage girl who has gotten all kinds of magazine coverage and her own show at 16.  I can hear them in the cafeteria now "oh my gawd did you see last nights episode....uh I so wish I could be on there...I mean Jim is so hot....I would so want him to be my baby daddy....oh and did you see her new car she got since last season...totally sick!!!"  I just don't get it.  Sadly I probably never will because you know I'm practically an old bag lady at the ripe ol' age of 29.  It's nothing now to walk through a mall and see high school kids pregnant with their boyfriend covered in tattoos.  I saw a freshman with tattoos the other day.  I just wanted to shake him, tell him how much he would regret that lizard tramp stamp when he gets older...oh wait maybe that's me with the spring break tattoo gone wrong....horribly wrong!  That's a prime example, my tramp stamp (do you know how humiliating it is to say that!).  I got a lizard tattoo my senior year of high school.  I mean it was the COOL thing to do on spring break ya know!  I told my mom as soon as I got home...pretty sure she wanted to beat the holy you know what out of me.  I didn't tell my dad, why you ask because he WOULD have BEAT THE HOLY H*** out of me.  A few months later my dad (accidentally) saw my tattoo.  I will never forget that conversation.  It was the only time my dad told me he was disappointed in me.  Talk about ripping "daddy's little girls" heart right out and stomping on it!!!  But notice how I had FEAR of my father.  Not today, today dad's sign the consent form so their 12 year old can get "tatted up".  I mean it is the cool thing to do during recess, right?  Anyway, I should probably step down off my soap box now.  Maybe go lock my kids in their closets till their, oh I don't know, say 35.  I mean surely they can make good decisions by then, and not be influenced my some STUPID MTV show, or some ignorant friend for that matter!  I just hope that my kids will always respect me, and have the sense to make good choices.  And just so we are clear...I don't mind tattoo's (actually I like them, just not on junior high kids!), and I know some parents are doing the very best they can.  I'm fully aware that we can't be with our kids 24/7!  I mean we all know your sophomore doesn't want you sitting in class with her while she's trying to flirt with Mr. Wonderful.