Caution: student driver
August 15, 2014
As a parent I have been dreading this time since Julia was very young. Julia just passed her drivers test and is on the road as a new driver. She has used some money from savings and her father and I have chipped in to cover the rest of the expense for a used car. I feel a bit more at ease given Julia seems to be a conscientious driver. I am also relieved because now she can drive her sister Madeline to school and get herself to and from extra curricular activities.
One funny thing that has happened recently is Julia received her first bad haircut. She was mortified and went out shopping for hats immediately after the haircut. I try not to laugh and be supportive of Julia because we know adolescence is a time girls tend to have lower levels of self esteem. Her embarrassment surrounding the haircut seemed to be a bit over the top and remained her main focus for a few weeks. As a parent, I chalked most of the dramatics up to the idea of adolescent egocentrism and the fact that Julia seems to think the world is looking at her and her only during this time. We know adolescents appear to be very self absorbed during this time and often highly critical of themselves and others. Something as simple as a bad haircut can send them over the edge. The following week we went to another hairdresser to see if she could fix the problem. The new salon gave her some fun highlights that Julia really liked. This helped boost her self esteem and she left the hats at home when she went to school.
We are also starting to plan for Julia's life after high school. Julia took the PSAT and did very well. I am still demanding she take the SAT prep course to be sure her scores are where we need them to be to get into the college of her choice. We know that a college education leads to making significantly more money over a lifetime then a high school education. Both myself and her father will continue to push her to attend college.
As a parent I have been dreading this time since Julia was very young. Julia just passed her drivers test and is on the road as a new driver. She has used some money from savings and her father and I have chipped in to cover the rest of the expense for a used car. I feel a bit more at ease given Julia seems to be a conscientious driver. I am also relieved because now she can drive her sister Madeline to school and get herself to and from extra curricular activities.
One funny thing that has happened recently is Julia received her first bad haircut. She was mortified and went out shopping for hats immediately after the haircut. I try not to laugh and be supportive of Julia because we know adolescence is a time girls tend to have lower levels of self esteem. Her embarrassment surrounding the haircut seemed to be a bit over the top and remained her main focus for a few weeks. As a parent, I chalked most of the dramatics up to the idea of adolescent egocentrism and the fact that Julia seems to think the world is looking at her and her only during this time. We know adolescents appear to be very self absorbed during this time and often highly critical of themselves and others. Something as simple as a bad haircut can send them over the edge. The following week we went to another hairdresser to see if she could fix the problem. The new salon gave her some fun highlights that Julia really liked. This helped boost her self esteem and she left the hats at home when she went to school.
We are also starting to plan for Julia's life after high school. Julia took the PSAT and did very well. I am still demanding she take the SAT prep course to be sure her scores are where we need them to be to get into the college of her choice. We know that a college education leads to making significantly more money over a lifetime then a high school education. Both myself and her father will continue to push her to attend college.
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