Why, Yes Kids There is Such a Thing Called Karma…

My husband and I are somewhat old-fashioned. We believe and try/tried to instill in our kids the following virtues:

1. Do the right thing

2. Treat others the way you would want to treated

3. Honesty is the best policy

4. Karma, will always come back to get you so be careful

For the most part the kids have listened to these words of advice, they haven’t always followed it (especially the damn bookends – oldest & youngest) so we have had our share of teachable moments.

The youngest seems to want to challenge us at every corner by the way she dresses, acts, friends, you name it – she challenges (I believe she is a true Taurus). We should have known we were in trouble when at the age of 12 she proclaimed she wanted nipple rings. Right then and there we should have enrolled her at an all girls school run by Nuns or Outward Bound.

There is one more big no-no in our house and that’s no tattoos (well at least until you’re 18 and you get them where they can be covered). We are old school in that sense, why? We feel you can lose jobs because of a tattoo and stall your career, etc. Now it’s fine for other people, but not for us or our kids. Of course once the oldest daughter (Uni Student) turned 18, she went and got her first tattoo but,  she respected us and got her tats where you really can’t see them – she now has three.

Now how does Karma fit into this? Well ever since she was 13 the teen (now 17) has wanted to work at Starbucks. Now that she’s old enough she can’t work there Karma has kept her from her dream job. That Karma would be : A LEGALLY OBTAINED TATTOO. Starbucks policy is no visible tattoos and her tattoo is on the inside of her wrist. Which makes it very hard to hide.

Legally obtained yes, she went behind our back and got “tatted”. Last year I received a call from a very angry parent, accusing me of picking up her daughter and my kid from a tattoo parlor. I was shocked. Umm “no” I said, l had picked them from a friends house where they were working on a school project. Well turns out this friend was the “under age resident illegal tattoo artist of Westview High School” and the project was “Giving my damn kid and her friend a tattoo”. PS: this kid had given tattoos to over 50 kids at the school. His goal is to be a tattoo artist, that’s admirable – he’s working on his craft. Thankfully he followed the rules of a tattoo parlor he  used a professional kit, gloves and did that part correct. But he really needs to work on his tattoo design skills – it’s kind of hard to tell what the  teens tattoo is.  Of course the teen thinks it’s beautiful and doesn’t see that its off center and you really cant figure out what it is.

We had warned the teen about doing things behind our back would only come back to haunt her and boy this did: besides being grounded for two-months , there is no job at Starbucks which equals Karma. Is she bummed? Yes. Has she learned a lesson about tattoos or going behind our backs? No, on going behind our back – she’s  teen what else could I expect. Yes, on the tattoo. She still want’s a another tattoo, but now she uses the words “I’ll get it where you cant see it’. and I say “That’s damn right sister, get your tattoo where the sun don’t shine.”

PS:

Eventually we would have found out about the tattoo because the teen uploaded all her pictures she took during her “session” onto my laptop and iPhoto. I do give her credit for one thing – she did a great job of hiding it for a week.