Brainwashed

"This cloth will absorb 5 gallons of liquid!"

"Buy this cream and look 20 years younger in a week!"

These catch lines along with the annoying jingles that are set to repeat in your brain for days are the part of TV we warn kids about. "No, that toy will not make you a super hero." "No, we are not buying that doll, you will hate it in a week." Discerning fact from ads is a life skill we learn at a young age. But sometimes the message isn't an ad, and it is much more subtle...

Teen is applying to colleges, getting her affairs in order as it were as senior year cycles up to a fevered pitch. I have thought of these days often as she was growing-up. Not because I have a career in mind she wouldn't listen anyway but because I always thought it would be fun to tour campuses together, spread brochures across the kitchen table and talk. In other words, we would strengthen our bond over this time and these experiences. Reality is nothing like I imagined go figure

Instead Hubby and I try to get her to talk about her thoughts and she looks at us as if we are speaking an extinct language. Forging ahead in earnest, I ask about tours, again a confused stare followed swiftly by a Teen-esque eye roll. We have tried the casual "by the way" approach, the "have a seat we need to talk" directive, and the ever-popular "ARE YOU INSANE!! YOU'LL BE 100K IN DEBT AND 2500 MILES AWAY!!" tactic. Nothing seems to gel. 

Yet again fiction has made my expectations far too grand, and real life simply isn't playing along. It is all very blase and ho-hum to Teen. Apparently she hasn't been watching the same TV shows and movies as me.