But I have discovered one benefit. I am now on the leading edge of the hip hop music world, much to my own chagrin. How does a middle age white mom from Kitchener, Ontario get to be this ...uhhh...specialized? Well, you need to live with a couple of teenagers who spend most of their waking hours listening to Odd Future or Wiz Kahlifa. Or if they are feeling mellow, a little Top 40 hip hop, like Drake's new CD, is emanating from iPods at any given moment. Personally, I have become an enthusiastic Kanye West fan after listening to My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy on a three-hour car ride last summer. I understand he is an egomaniac with poor social skills (his display at the Grammy's a couple of years ago showed him to be moronic) but I don't need to respect him or care about him personally. I just like his music.
Tyler the Creator (I love that name!) of Odd Future fame has some pretty raunchy lyrics and most mothers would be horrified if he was to show up on their doorstep, but my youngest daughter knows Tyler personally and she says he's a nice and interesting young man. I think his songs are interesting as well: his lyrics reveal what the youth of today is concerned about. It isn't pretty but it is real. He is actually a very astute observer of life. Perhaps even a poet. It does surprise (and perhaps horrify) my daughter though when I recognize one of his songs. I am notorious for not remembering any lyrics to even my favorite song (Whole Lotta Love).
Of course, music appreciation goes the other way. Both my girls know classic jazz songs from Louis, Billy and Etta. They, unlike me, can even sing all the lyrics. My eldest daughter was reprimanded in the second grade for singing Bobby Darin's Call Me Irresponsible too loudly during reading time. I was never so proud! The youngest daughter worships at the shrine of Jimi Hendrix at the same time she digs Tyler (the Creator). She has good taste.
But music appreciation is not the only benefit of teenagers. I now have two personal stylists who will nix any ugly/bad/inappropriate choices in clothing. I am not in any danger of appearing on What Not To Wear, despite thinking it would be great to have Stacy and Clinton give me $5k to shop in New York City. While only a fraction of my clothes are "borrowed" by them, they still generally approve of my overall appearance. But they are concerned with my shoes. As I get older, I am less and less excited about high heels. I have enough to last me for the next five years and my concerns lay more with comfort and functionality (sports shoes are an addiction). They forbid me to buy most shoes I like, but occasionally I sneak a pair past the Shoe Patrol. My girls, however, will be found teetering on 4" stilettos (making them 6'2") at any time, despite admitting they are brutally uncomfortable. Taking them out to a dress up event is like being bookended by two exotic giraffes.
Another (slight) benefit is that I now have awareness of some truly hilarious websites (not including cat videos, which I am ashamed to admit, have watched with my daughter for kicks on a Friday night). I realize that it takes a lot of disposable time to discover these sites (or find the sites that aggregate the cools sites so you don't need to do the searching), and for that I am grateful. Obviously, when you are 16 years old and your schedule is that of a vampire's, you have to do something between the hours of 2 am and 4 am. Apparently, it is download cool music, seek out new fashions, post images and words to your Tumblr, skype your cross country friends as well as your BFF that you just saw earlier in the day, coin new phrases and surf shoe sites.
But are they good for anything else? Nope. But then again, neither was I at that age.
