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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1994)
Parents are more than skin deep Parents can be such an embar rassment. They always talk about what it was like when they were your age. They had to drive their grandma’s Rambler to college and they bagged groceries for ten hours every night to pay tuition. Some pro tested the war in Vietnam and a few probably dropped acid, but you can’t tell by looking at them. Those cutting-edge hipsters of the ’60s now look like Wal-Mart catalog people. Your dad sweats profusely when he mows the yard on a riding mower, and he parts his hair just above his right ear because there’s nothing to part farther up. Your mom throws a fit when you wear long-handles undercut-offs. She called the Crisis Center when you pierced your nose. She has a collection ofbizarre exercise devices in the base ment, including a Barbie-doll size trampoline and a set of giant rubber bands. She went through a seaweed and- tofu phase, a yoga phase and an exotic houseplant phase. When the kids are finally out of the house, she’ll join a rock-climbing group and start a newsletter for menopausal women. Parents seem to live in a shell. They just don’t understand the way things are now. People carry guns in high school. Friends kill themselves. Ev eryone knows where to go for an abor tion. Only girls from poor families have their babies. Life is gritty for teenagers, and parents seem to live in a la-la-land of mini-vans and frozen yogurt. If it’s hard for kids to believe that parents were ever teenagers, it’s just as hard for parents to believe their kids are teenagers. Although the duration of a lifetime appears to be linear, time picks up speed after one’s 30th birthday. This unusual phenomenon manifests itself in subtle ways. Suddenly, people have to do an equation to remember their age. A couple of beers will put them to sleep. They can’t believe it’s already Christmas again, and they fixate on It happens to everyone. One day you’re spending every dime you earn on state-of-the-art stereo equipment. The next day you’re shopping for a mattress that won’t hurt your back. young people’s growth rate — my, they can’t believe how much you’ve grown. The time-acceleration phenome non is yet another joke of the universe, a sub-group of the mysteries of the universe. Jokes of the universe in clude nostril hair, cellulite and ratio nal communication between men and women. Nothing makes time-acceler ation more evident than kids leaving for college. Parents may treat their college-age kids like babies because time-acceleration makes it seem like only yesterday they were fishing jelly beans out of a certain nose. Actually, parents do understand that life is gritty. Half of the marriages they celebrated two decades ago end ed in divorce, and others arc on shaky ground. Their best friend from college nas cancer. Lately, they’ve noticed a lump beneath their arm that just won’t go away. Property taxes are going up again, the car needs new skins and grandma may have to go to a nursing home. Life can get so gritty that people find ways to ignore painful things. A florified ranch house with a Ford aurus in the garage represents mid dle-class entrapment (as well as free rent) to an in-your-face teenager. It represents comfort and security to people who have lived in two dozen cheesy little apartments and need a little respite from life’s accumulated grit. It happens to everyone. One day you’re spending every dime you earn on state-of-the-art stereo equipment. The next day you’re shopping for a mattress that won’t hurt your back. Parents vacillate between telling their kids, “you’ll find out one day, ’ and not wanting their kids to find out. Consequently, it may be hard for par ents to talk to their kids about depres sion, sex, illness, drug abuse and abor tion. They omit certain family secrets from their oral history. They can’t help it. They think they’re protecting their kids. Young people in high school and college are confronted with a menu of deadly issues including AIDS, eating disorders, suicidal depression, alco hol and drug abuse, violent relation ships and peers with pistols. These realities exist at UNL, and a survey by the Bureau of Sociological Research asked students to rate the seriousness of campus problems. Stu dents rated parking as the most seri ous problem on this campus for five years in a row. Parking. Life does, indeed, get grit tier. The parents of those UNL students who perceived parking as the most serious problem on campus have done a good job of protecting their kids. Parents might want to consider protecting their kids less and prepar ing them more. If families don’ tleam to talk about AIDS, eating disorders, depression, violent relationships and substance abuse, kids may long for the days when parking was their biggest problem. Deb McAdams is Dally Nebraskan editor and a Junior news-editorial major. Parents: Keep abreast of events at UNL with a Neljra^kan mail subscription i bm mm wmm mm mm mm mm mm mm m ^m mm mm mm mm mm tmm mm m mm mm ^m mm mm mm mm mm send $25/semester to: Daily Nebraskan P.O. Box 880448 Lincoln, NE 68588-0448 Name: ^____________ Address: r City: ______________ State Zip BRICK: noun, UNL campus: A decorative addition to the Lied Plaza and a wonderful gift for your student or parents! BRICKS ARE BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND: Yes I wanl lO Here is my order to purchase _bricks at $75 each. _Please send me further information on donating a bench. ... i All donations are tax-deductible. Pave ihe Way... (Pkase p,inl> My Name:—_ Address: City:- . -State:_Zip:_ Telephone Number: (_)_ Indicate your inscription instructions on the oilier side. D Check Enclosed (Make check payable to Friends of Lied.) Charge to O MasterCard G Visa Charge Cord #-Exp. Date_ Card Holder Signature__ Note there arc two rows for each brick and room for 16 cluiractcn and/or spaces per row. Here arc some examples of ways in which you might want to inscribe bricks: Jane Jones John Q. Smith Herb and Helen Class of 1989 Horn Jan 1, 1976 Husker Sample: o ^ n_Q J_s rv* l ~f /y lgl0lrlnl 1 Tj q1n1 1 / 1 , 1 / | 9 I 7 16 M*#lt — Brick #2: Send to: Friends of Lied • 12th & R St. • Lincoln, NE 68588 CAMPUS \ RECREATION E^rv I» We're Here When You Need Some Relief! ) Here's what we have to otter: INTRAMURAL SPORTS OUTDOOR ADVENTURES WELLNESS SERVICES FITNESS PROGRAMMING NSTRUCTIONAL PROGRAMMING INFORMAL RECREATION SPORT CLUBS EQUIPMENT RENTAL Come check us out! —For more information, call the Office of Campus Recreation at 472-3467.