Parental realization #357...

... our pre-teen/teenage daughter will not be allowed to hang out with her friends at the mall on a Friday night.

Matt and I came to this realization this past Friday night as we walked through White Marsh Mall. We often head to the mall on Friday nights just to walk around or window shop (and take a peek at the dogs at the pet store) before we go out to dinner. And everytime we go, we feel noticeably old since 80% of the mall's population on Friday nights are teenage girls and boys just 'hanging out'. Groups of girls surreptitiously following groups of boys around, boys 'pretending' not to notice, but definitely noticing, and following the girls around too. In some ways, it's comical. Of course, Matt and I were teenagers once before too, and either hung out at the mall, or in the Hardees parking lot, or downtown Annapolis checking out the midshipmen (that's Kim looking at the midshipmen, not Matt). And we thought we were cool once too.

But now that we're married and young 30-somethings, we have officially turned into our parents. The boys at the mall have their hair too long, pants lower than their butts, or those new slim fit boys jeans (that look like they're meant for girls) and those crazy ear piercings that put button size holes in their lobes. And the girls are wearing too tight clothes, that show too much cleavage, and too short skirts with too much makeup. And their language is a bit appalling. It's not like we never noticed this before - but last night, it hit us a little too hard. One of those teenage girls could be our teenage girl in 13 years.

So, when one of the girl cliques passed us, we both looked at each other, and were thinking the same exact thing... our daughter will not be going to the mall unsupervised on a Friday night with her friends. And she won't date until she's 30. Matt and I are going to be thought of as the worst and most unfair parents in the world :) But Matt did bring up a good point - in 13 years, maybe online shopping will have become so popular that malls won't exist anymore, and then our problem is solved. But I'm sure there will be another hang out spot to worry about....