A Mohawk.....REALLY?

With teenagers, I have learned, you need to choose your battles....do I hear an amen? When Erik and I first talked about having children we boldly declared that no child of OURS would have a piercing, dress weird or have an (what we deemed) inappropriate haircut. We simply wouldn't allow it.

Well with raising a teenager there are much bigger issues to face. A few "challenges" we have had to deal with include lying, having girlfriends in the house alone, skipping school, and having a planned fight appear on YouTube. Oh yeah, and the first day my oldest got his driver's license, he drove to St. Petersburg, an hour away via Interstate 75, to purchase an Xbox from a guy he met on the Internet (still can't get over that one). Thank goodness nothing bad happened. These are all things I never planned to deal with because, well remember? MY teenagers would be perfectly well behaved......they were related to me after all. To steal a phrase from Virgina Slims, "I have come a long way baby". All of the above issues and incidents involved a lot of yelling, arguing, punishment enforcement, and tears (from me).

Last year my middle child came to us wanting to get his ears pierced. I said "no way", but I would let his dad decide. Well, Erik assumed he meant one ear. IN OUR DAY, two ear piercings were unheard of at least in the conservative suburbs of Washington, D.C....... 

Erik caved. He agreed to one piercing while our son believed he was agreeing to two. When the discrepancy was discovered the poop hit the fan (to put it nicely). Arguing, yelling, and angst followed. Both sides polled facebook friends to see what their opinion was. Surprisingly(LOL) most of the over 40 crowd was "against" and the younger generation was "for". Since it was eventually established that two piercings were not going to happen, our son agreed to one. It's a proud moment when a father takes his 15 year old to the mall to get his ear pierced. Even prouder when you run into people you know from church. As Erik saw the church ladies approaching, he strategically started walking diagonally away from the earring piercing counter (close call).

This event took place last year and I am getting over it. I fine with it (I think). Well, lets just say I don't want to argue about it anymore. Our church picture appointment with Olan Mills is tomorrow. Yesterday, my son asked if he could get a haircut (wow, I thought, he really cared about looking nice for this church picture). He then tells me of his plans for a Mohawk. Really........really? Luckily, without much yelling or family turmoil, he agreed to wait until AFTER our picture is taken. I am not excited about the idea, but feel blessed he was willing to wait without much hassle. This is a battle I choose not to fight.