Popping the Bubble

I have spent a decade plus a few more years raising my kids in a bubble.

I chose the bubble.

I owned the bubble.

I embraced the bubble.

PhilBillPaul and I discussed the bubble and we decided when we would let the bubble get a little bigger. Or if we invited others into our bubble.

I never really cared what others thought of our bubble. I was more concerned with keeping my kids in the bubble for as long as possible.

My bubble. My rules.

Get your own bubble. Don’t mess with ours.

The bubble got pretty thin in high school. For us, especially thin because it was our teen kids first experience in public school which was a shift in size (huge school) and environment in general.

The last two years I have tried to let more people in the bubble and let the kids experience more things because I want them to make decisions and make mistakes on their own. But while they’re still in our house I hope they will feel like there is a safety net to catch them.

I have shared before that we have diverse music interests at our house. PhilBillPaul grew up loving hard rock. I prefer soft rock and country. We were both glad we missed the rap and hip hop genre. When the kids were born we compromised and listened to contemporary Christian and I would sneak in a little country as they got older.

When I heard that Toby Keith would be in Atlanta performing with Montgomery Gentry on September 11th, I knew that was a concert I didn’t want to miss. PhilBillPaul even likes his music. Country rock with very little banjo has potential for a nice date night.

At the last minute we got two more tickets and Roger Leroy and her friend Sharté came with us.

It was a patriotic celebration and several tributes and songs moved me to tears.

What I didn’t expect was another kind of celebration.

A drinking celebration. Loads and loads of drinking.

Such an opportunity to expand the bubble for Roger Leroy.

Side note: I’m not responsible for Sharté’s bubble.

Here is a big clue that you are really old. And have been living in a bubble for a long time.

PhilBillPaul spent the first 30 minutes of the concert flipping his around in every direction and pointing on drunk people in various stages of drunken inappropriate behavior.

It’s not that I was immune to it. I guess I wasn’t as shocked because I’ve been to Nashville for 3 years now. He pointed out that the last concert he had been to was a Christian music festival we all went as a family.

Once he calmed down enough to try to enjoy the music, his 17 year-old daughter starting pointing out people.

We used this opportunity in between songs and during the band set-up to have lively discussion about important little lessons the girls could take from this concert including:

• If you think the soft drinks are expensive at a concert, check out the price of alcohol.
• If you are an idiot before drinking, you are an even bigger idiot when you drink.
• Parents and their children are watching you be a drunk idiot.
• “Get Drunk and Be Somebody” is a song title and should not be taken literally.
• Grown men peeing on a wall in the parking lot is just bad manners.
• Your mother would not be proud of you if she could see you like we saw you.

As we left the concert, we talked about how it would change the world if they made everyone take a breathalyzer test before they got in their cars at events like concerts and sporting events that sell alcohol.

But it appears this little company has taken matters into their own hands.

We’re not sure if Jethro in the overalls with his underwear showing was the driver – welcome to Georgia. Roger Leroy made this astute observation concerning career choice…

“I don’t think it would be a very fun job to drive drunk people around.”

I know I won’t always be with them. I know they’ll be exposed to far worse as they go out into the world.

Since the bubble has popped, I hope I let them see enough idiots so they won’t choose to become idiots themselves.

But I also know this parenting gig is a crap shoot and we all just do the best we can and pray they stay safe and know how much we love them.

Life Lesson (LL): You can make the conscious choice to have tons of fun in life without ever taking a drink – I really do know this because that’s a decision I made when I was a teenager.

Share a Life Lesson (SALL): Any good stories you can share to help teach our kids how to not turn into drunk idiots?