How to Rebel: #1

So here comes the hookah.

Since we suburban parents haven't had enough to contend with -- pharmparties, pot smoking, etc. -- yesterday brought a request from #2 to have a bit of hookah puffing around the backyard picnic table.

After negotiating Google searches on what the health effects of this hot college past-time might be, it was fairly clear that a night bubbling tobacco was not going to pass the parental approval test.

Still, he does (as he points out) get points for honesty particularly about how he and his posse have spent several nights hookah-ing this summer. The question is how to encourage the honesty factor while simultaneously quashing the undesirable activity factor.

The best I could offer at the moment (why do kids need a decision a second before the gang arrives???) is a bit of human resource sleight of hand: My job description remains to love, feed and protect him; his remains to take risks, act out, and rebel against a sizable percentage of adult decisions.

And that so far, we both continue to ace our respective roles.

Sigh*.