Sunday, September 11, 2005
youth advisor -- at church and at home!
I agreed to be a youth advisor at our church this year (on top of my sex ed teaching commitments) but am trying not to agree to do to much other than attend a maximum of once a month.
So today was the first day - - we had about 12 youth show up, which seemed pretty good for the first week. One of the items discussed was the potential re-painting of the youth room. In the past (about 5 years ago), the youth room was painted by enthusiastic, dynamic youth, who have now grown up and moved on. At the time, some of the things they wrote (very graffitti like) upset some of the older members of the church.
Meanwhile a new younger group is here now and we are discussing whether we should re-do the whole room. Two of the current youth are younger siblings of the group who did the room in the past so they have some distant "ownership" on some of the artwork. So we ended up examining piece by piece - and putting a piece of masking tape over any parts that we didn't like or seems to have no current meaning to the group. It looks like we will be redoing sections of the walls and keeping some of the better parts for "history" sake.
Otherwise it went ok. I like most of the kids -- I was not as impressed with some of the other youth advisors. They are a bit bizarre - but maybe once I get to know them better it will feel ok. Anyway, I didn't volunteer to do anything so I am HAPPY.
Meanwhile - at home early this morning, Amelia started yelling and screaming in the kitchen. Eric went out to see what the problem was. It seems that Amelia had started some artistic project (for school or otherwise?) -- basically she had cut out some letters in a magazine and glued them to the cover of a journal with white glue. She had left it out to dry in the rec room downstairs (where SHE KNOWS that the boys hang out). On top of this she left a pile of other stuff (i.e books) on top of the big freezer down there.
I know for a fact that we bought groceries twice over the weekend which would require someone to put the food in the freezer. This person must have moved her stuff onto the sofa, where her "precious" art work was. It landed on top of it and the glue was still wet, so it wrecked it.
Of course, this is all OUR FAULT. And we are all EVIL. When I came out to the kitchen and she was hysterical -- I looked at her and said - well, for this much noise there had better be blood. She looked at me and told me what the problem was. I said -- "look you have the biggest bedroom in the house and you can't keep your stuff in there??? Whose fault was it? Yes, youhave the right to be angry and frustrated - AT YOURSELF. Please don't take it out on us."
Sometimes kids are such inconsiderate jerks. I really do like Amelia, but she is over 18 now and should be beyond such emotional tantrums. As well, I have decided if she yells at me I will yell right back to see if she likes it.
So today was the first day - - we had about 12 youth show up, which seemed pretty good for the first week. One of the items discussed was the potential re-painting of the youth room. In the past (about 5 years ago), the youth room was painted by enthusiastic, dynamic youth, who have now grown up and moved on. At the time, some of the things they wrote (very graffitti like) upset some of the older members of the church.
Meanwhile a new younger group is here now and we are discussing whether we should re-do the whole room. Two of the current youth are younger siblings of the group who did the room in the past so they have some distant "ownership" on some of the artwork. So we ended up examining piece by piece - and putting a piece of masking tape over any parts that we didn't like or seems to have no current meaning to the group. It looks like we will be redoing sections of the walls and keeping some of the better parts for "history" sake.
Otherwise it went ok. I like most of the kids -- I was not as impressed with some of the other youth advisors. They are a bit bizarre - but maybe once I get to know them better it will feel ok. Anyway, I didn't volunteer to do anything so I am HAPPY.
Meanwhile - at home early this morning, Amelia started yelling and screaming in the kitchen. Eric went out to see what the problem was. It seems that Amelia had started some artistic project (for school or otherwise?) -- basically she had cut out some letters in a magazine and glued them to the cover of a journal with white glue. She had left it out to dry in the rec room downstairs (where SHE KNOWS that the boys hang out). On top of this she left a pile of other stuff (i.e books) on top of the big freezer down there.
I know for a fact that we bought groceries twice over the weekend which would require someone to put the food in the freezer. This person must have moved her stuff onto the sofa, where her "precious" art work was. It landed on top of it and the glue was still wet, so it wrecked it.
Of course, this is all OUR FAULT. And we are all EVIL. When I came out to the kitchen and she was hysterical -- I looked at her and said - well, for this much noise there had better be blood. She looked at me and told me what the problem was. I said -- "look you have the biggest bedroom in the house and you can't keep your stuff in there??? Whose fault was it? Yes, youhave the right to be angry and frustrated - AT YOURSELF. Please don't take it out on us."
Sometimes kids are such inconsiderate jerks. I really do like Amelia, but she is over 18 now and should be beyond such emotional tantrums. As well, I have decided if she yells at me I will yell right back to see if she likes it.
