Miz S, I hope you didn't get the wrong impression about my attitude or anyone else's attitude toward the younger generation. I was irritated beyond belief at Daniel's irresponsibility, but in general, I consider myself lucky to have him for a son. Except for losing any object not attached to him with a cord and occasional bouts of moodiness, he's a great kid who's never given me a minute's worry about the drinking or the drugs or the inappropriate friends or anything. (I do enough drinking and carousing with inappropriate friends for both of us! Well, in my younger days, anyway.) I'm sure lrw7 didn't mean Daniel when she mentioned entitled, overprotected kids, either; she's actually met him and knows he's a good boy . . . er, young man. After hearing some stories about the people she deals with every day at the college's financial aid office, I can understand where she's coming from, though.
Since I wrote that entry yesterday, I've been thinking, and it's probably true that Daniel's been overprotected somewhat. He's an only child, and it was just the two of us for several years, and I'm sure I made some mistakes in not letting him handle his own problems enough. To be honest, sometimes I'm amazed he turned out as well as he did. It was so hard for me to suppress my urge to do things for him instead of letting him do it himself and learn from his own mistakes occasionally. Even now, when he's out of my maternal grasp about 90% of the time, I have to bite my tongue to keep myself from exclaiming "I can do that for you!" Good thing he had a healthy independent streak--I think it prevented him from turning out completely helpless.
Eh, maybe I'm being too hard on myself. He'll probably always be a little absent-minded and forgetful, and that's not necessarily my fault, right? Some people just are that way. As a matter of fact, there's a chance he inherited that tendency (cough). I know plenty of mature adults who lose their phones and debit cards, and they manage to survive. As Rizzo said in Grease, "There are worse things I could do."
Why, yes, I can sum up everything in life with a song from a musical! Heh.
Edited to add: Guess who called me earlier this evening? My mom, to tell me Nikki Blonsky's in a Lifetime movie tonight. Ha!
