Saturday, October 17, 2009

Parents can be so embarrassing!

Three girls from our stake showing off their school spirit. The two on the ends are both in my seminary class.
(A little scary, I know, but they really are good girls:-)



Last night was the homecoming football game at our local high school. The team went into the game undefeated and exited in the same style. In fact they pummeled the poor other team 66-0.

That does not make for a lot of excitement. But there were two kids from our stake up for homecoming royalty, so we went to support them and their parents.

There were about ten of us sitting together which included two seminary teachers, two members of the stake presidency and a bishop. Not exactly the group teenagers want to hangout with. And us being there seemed to be even more uncomfortable for the children of the parents we were sitting with.

A few kids in the stake came by to visit, others would walk by, see us, and then wave briefly as they hurried by. More humorous though, was one friend's daughter who would walk by quickly, glancing at us out of the corner of her eyes, hoping perhaps that if she didn't acknowledge us, we would not see her.

But the funniest person was another friend's daughter who called her mother on her cell phone to tell her she would be coming by and to please not call out her name.

Hmmmm. Way too tempting. She would have been much better off to not have made that call, because once she said that, everyone felt compelled to stand and chant her name as she passed in front of us.

In fact we started cheering for all the youth that walked by. Daughter number 1 quit coming and three girls from my seminary class, looked up, saw who was cheering for them and ran away.

Hopefully they will all quickly recover from the embarrassment of the parental/church leader cheering section, because the reality is that each one of us there truly loves the youth in our stake. And although we don't always stand and cheer for them out loud as they pass in front of us, we are all cheering for them silently, in the lessons prepared, the talks given and the prayers offered in their behalf.
So to the youth of the church . . . Hurrah!! Hurrah!! Hurrah!!

We love you and will ALWAYS be your personal cheering section!!

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this story. I am seeing glimpses of my future with my daughter Sierra. She is already starting to show signs of teenage angst.

Lisa @ Pulsipher Page said...

I love this story too. They may have acted embarrassed but secretly I bet they were smiling. We all need our own cheering section sometimes.

Momza said...

YEA! for Awesome parents and Leaders! We all know that despite thier outward awkwardness, inside they were beaming!
Way to BE!

Jenny-Jenny said...

"we are all cheering for them silently" So very true. Everyone needs a cheering section! I agree, though, I think they really liked it.

NatureGirl said...

I always cheer out loud for our youth...They may be embarrassed by me, but they have no doubt that I love them!

Rebecca Irvine said...

So funny! I would have chanted their names too. Who won for the royalty?

Donise Price said...

When I was a girl we would have ward dances. When I was about 12 my Dad came and asked me to dance and I turned him down. I always felt terrible for that and hope that I have repented enough that when we are in heaven he will give me another chance.

Debi (Dubs2007) said...

call it hormones or whatever - but this made me cry.. I think that is awesome that you would cheer for the youth.

alpinekleins said...

The Youth are so contagious, just love being around them. I hope they are rubbing off on me :)

Kristin

Jenny-Jo said...

I don't know why they would have been embarrased. We are the coolest parents ever, right? :-) Everyone likes to be noticed so I agree with everyone else that they really did like it! I loved what you said about cheering silently. I just wish they knew we were always doing that. Great entry! :-)

Heidi said...

I was never one of those girls who was embarrassed by being acknowledged by older women. I don't get it. It totally astonishes me when I say Hi to some girl from the ward at school or whatever and she ducks her head. What's up with that? (love your new blog look!)