Monday, September 9, 2013

Cool Parenting Points

I did something very cool last Friday, I took a pre-teen to a "documentary" movie about her favorite boy band. I say documentary loosely because it wasn't nearly the level of National Geographic or those Ancient Aliens shows on Discovery or History channel or something. But it was a movie compiled of little interviews and moments from tour and live shows bits to make a surprisingly fun movie.

One Direction is a band compiled of five talented British boys. They took the pre-teen world by storm in the last 2 years thanks to Britain's The X Factor and Simon Cowel. All 5 boys auditioned separately and Simon thought they had something worth while and put them together. Low and behold, he was right. They are in the middle of a world tour right now and will be doing another one next year. And yes, I'm keeping my eyes out for tickets in the Minneapolis area.

That last paragraph will put me in the category of a DIRECTIONER. Click the word to find out, it'll make you giggle.

But seriously, I had a blast at this movie. I bought the tickets in advance, told her we were going via instagram. You know, took a picture of the confirmation, tagged her in it and put it on instagram. Cause I'm all hip like that. I told her she could even pick out my outfit. (Sadly, she didn't get home from her friends in time to do so, so I got to look like the smokin' step-mom that I am without her help.) We got our 3D glasses, our obligatory popcorn, candy and coke before hand and sat with bated breath, waiting for the moment when it would start and we could all "woo-hoo!!!" at the opening credits.

The whole movie made me very nostalgic for my New Kids on the Block days. I was in love with that late 80's-early 90's boy band. Their posters were all over my bedroom, I knew all their "fun" facts, had the doll, the game, every jewelry piece possible, and I KNEW I was meant to be with Donnie. He and I were SOOOO going to get married. Connecting those old memories to this night made it amazing for me. As I settled into this movie and accepted the fact that I really do like their music, they actually can sing, and are really charming and humble, I looked over at Miss K and my heart did a leap. Seriously, you guys I wish you could have seen her when the footage of the five band members playing "live! in concert" came on the big screen for the first time. She sat in the seat next to me, her Skittles in her lap and her too-big-for-her-face 3D glasses on, her eyes wide and her hands over her mouth in complete AWE. It was real. And she was SO their number one fan at that moment. That was my favorite everything about this event, watching her and remembering that feeling so well.

There are times in my step-parenting life that I question everything I do and who I am. But this night I did it right. I let her be her, love what she did for the same reasons, completely embraced why we were there and fell for her and who she is even more. And One Direction, listen to them. They are cute and man, they make some catchy music. For reals.