We recently went on a family ski trip that involved very little skiing.
Mother Nature has not been well behaved, so we had no snow and conditions were not even cold enough for the snow-making machines to do their thing. So, we spent our ski trip doing a lot of alternative activities – bowling, walking, card-playing, movie-watching, and video game-playing. We also did a lot of talking.
I thought I would share what my teenagers taught me over the holidays about teenage rules and etiquette. I was in absolute shock because so many of the “rules” don’t make sense, and yet my kids claim they are universal.
Did you know:
- If you post a selfie, you must tag your best friends. That’s right – take a picture of yourself and then tag other people who are not actually in the photo.
- On that note, if you get tagged in a post, you MUST leave a comment. You cannot just “like” the post and you certainly cannot NOT respond at all. Being tagged means you comment. Got that?
- If someone messages you and asks you to come over and “watch Netflix and chill”, they are inviting you to fool around. They can invite you to watch Netflix. They can invite you to chill. BUT if they invite you to watch Netflix AND chill, there are some other plans for the evening!
- If you want to post something but you are unsure about it, teenagers post it privately and tag their friends for input. The friends provide advice whether the post is appropriate, cool enough, worthy of social media attention.
- Taking things offline for a moment: If you go to your OWN prom, girls must wear a long dress. If someone invites you to their prom, you wear a short dress.
Not sure who sets these unwritten rules or how they circulate so widely, but I learned much about teen culture on our non-skiing ski holiday.
Do you have teens? What fascinating things have you learned?
