Oh the pressure!!!!

This weekend my oldest son was invited to a girl’s birthday party. He was one of only a few boys that were invited to the luau.

As you can imagine, I was stricken with anxiety! Not because my son was going to spend five hours in the pool with a bunch of girls, but that the gift that I was supposed to buy may end up getting my son kicked out of the “cool” crowd. It was almost more than I could handle! I remembered the terror of not fitting in the “right” crowd in Jr High (and truth be told, the kids that were tormented by some of the so-called “cool kids”)

I have no clue at all what a young teen-aged girl now a days wants. Gosh! Even saying that makes me feel ancient! I wandered up and down the aisles picking things up, putting them back down. What to get, what to get….

OH! I could get nailpolish! YES! Perfect! What girl doesn’t like nail polish?

But, as luck would have it, the store we were at didn’t have those little nail polish kits and I didn’t have time to run to another store. What they did have was the cute little bath kits. That would work too… except for, what kind of message would that send? A BOY giving the gift of bath to a GIRL? NO no no… that won’t work at all.

Maybe a book? I love to read! No… that won’t work either! What if her parents don’t appreciate my taste in pre-teen books. Or what if that gift pegs my son as “that weird kid that gave *Kelly a BOOK”

ARGH!

Desperately I searched high and low for the perfect gift that wouldn’t convey too much (here, take this gift as a token of my intent to eventually marry you) or too little (here take this gift, ignore the fact that I’m a nerd, I”m just here for the 6ft sub)

Finally! There was a light at the end of my tunnel of desperation. Half way down the home decor aisle I saw something brightly colored! Something fluffy! Something soft!!! TOSS PILLOWS! WOOT! That would be perfect! Neutral enough to not make the girl think that my son has a huge crush on her. Thoughtful enough that the girl would appreciate his gift and use it often!

I would have never guessed that one of the biggest stresses of my teenage parenting days would be gift giving! Don’t you worry though! Next time I’m going to be totally prepared! Never again will I be caught without a clue!

Oh wait… I’m a parent of a teen. It’s a sure thing that I don’t have a clue! At least, according to him…

*name changed to protect the innocent