Other People's Kids Suck

The other night my husband and I were visiting with his aunts and uncles and they were reminiscing about all the friends their children had that they hated the most. This reminded me of times my mother openly complained to me during my teen years about friends I had that she did not care for. My husband and I shot each other a knowing look. It was a "this is why I don't have a kid" look.

Your kids bringing home rotten friends is a universal problem. At some point your kid is going to like a child who is rude, bratty, ill-behaved, destructive and an all-around bad influence. Your kid will make friends with a kid who wants to get drunk, feed your dog chocolate, shoplift, start fights, engage in a threesome, bully other kids and who knows what else. The bad behavior possibilities are endless.

I don't really want to spend my days and nights worrying non-stop about how peer pressure-proof I've managed to make my child. It's simply not enough for you to tell your kid smoking and cutting school are bad things to do. You have to worry about someone far cooler than you telling your kid otherwise. As much and I'd like to think I could raise a good kid, I remember all the questionable things I did in my youth, despite my parents urgings to do otherwise. I don't think there's anything my parents could have said or done to change any of my missteps. My friends' influence was powerful and my parents were the enemy. The last thing I ever want is to raise a little mini-me who'd try to get away with sneaking out of the house, fooling around with her boyfriend while I was at work, or raiding my liquor cabinet for boozy middle school sleepovers.

What's most disconcerting is I was pretty much a "good" kid. I scored straight As and got a scholarship to a top university. I did volunteer work with the elderly. I wrote thank you notes. I survived my childhood and teen years with no drug habits, accidental pregnancy or arrest record. I don't even want to find out what happens if you're unfortunate enough to have one of the not-so-good ones.