Fifteen and Stranded

A month or so ago, MaddSkillz was telling us what he wanted for his birthday.  Usually with MaddSkillz he gives us this insane list of obvious items we cannot afford, yet he somehow feels the need to ask for them anyways.

Honestly, if we had the money I would have no problem getting anything he wanted.

But with five kids, asking for a iPhone and his own plan (we're on T Mobile, iPhone is strictly AT&T) is just about retarded.  Seriously Dude? Your own phone plan?  Anyways that's not what happened during his possible birthday discussion.

He told us he only wanted two things.  He said he wanted a set of dumbbells (because he wants to get buff and stuff for all his upcoming movie roles) and something that wouldn't cost us anything.  I told him there is no such thing when it comes to him or any kid except fresh oxygen. Since he already has access to it, there must be something else. I already knew what his request would be, but I let him drop it on us anyways.

He wanted to be able to date at fifteen.

Prior to this, we had told him he could start dating at sixteen.  Part of the reason was because we want him to focus on school and not be distracted by the opposite sex.  Last year we found out he had a girlfriend for six months and didn't tell us.  Would we have approved at the beginning of six months, probably not.  But we realized that we couldn't stop him from caring from someone.  We still did not approve and we limited the time he could interact with this girl.

When the girlfriend did come around the house (which was only a couple times at the most), she never said a word to KC or I.  We would try to talk to her, but she wouldn't openly communicate.  If we picked her up, the same thing.

So Momma Bear was not taking too kindly to this girl his son was choosing to hang out with.

Needless to say, high school things happened and they kaput before a year was up.

Enter T.

T started out as a friend, and feelings developed.  MaddSkillz told T about the no dating until sixteen rule. So while MaddSkillz I'm sure would have broken it again because he felt he got away with it the first time, T felt the need to respect his parents rules and said she would wait.

We had met T quite a few times.  Totally the opposite of the first girl.   She would talk to us, ask about us to Michael, show concern for his siblings.  Basically we had no problem with MaddSkillz request to lower his dating age.

So along with dumbbells and Driver's Ed lessons, we gave MaddSkillz an empty box.  He looked at it and was slightly puzzled.

"You said it's not going to cost us anything...."

He was excited.  T came over to give him his gift, he told her and she started crying.

I'm assuming they were tears of joy.

So then they go out a few days later, he uses some money he got for his birthday.  It's cool, I'm not paying for it.  But then my wife is the one taking them to the restaurant and picking them up from the movies and dropping T off at home.

It is costing me something, it's costing me gas.

I tell KC that he should give us five bucks per date to pay for gas.  She says no.

I say YES.

He said it wasn't going to cost me anything.  I can't just throw trash into Mr. Fusion and expect my Deloreon to make it to 88 miles per hour whenever he wants to go somewhere.  He wants the responsibility to go out and pay for his own dates, he should pay for gas too right?

Am I asking too much?

Or should I ask two-fifty from T?

I know most of my readers who comment do not have teenagers, but what do you think?  If he had his own car, he'd have to pay for gas as it was.  I'm thinking the next time I have to take them somewhere, I might have to pull over on the side of the road because I'm "out of gas" and stranded, then make him pay me five bucks to fill it back up.  Just to let him know I'm serious.

And while I'm at it, I'll play Miley Cyrus on the radio just to rub it in.

Have a great weekend my friends.

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