Parents without lives

The weekend before my son left for college, I drove him to a camp where he spent the weekend. On the way there, we met up with one of his buddies under some golden arches for them to get their teenage boy junk food fix. While we were sitting at the table for them to eat, I noticed the other boy's phone was constantly going off. He was receiving text after text. Now, with three full fledged teens and one knocking on the door living in my house, I am no stranger to the texting habits of the American teen. But this seemed excessive. So, I had to comment.
"You certainly are popular", I offered as an explanation.

He rolled his eyes, sighed a long, deep sigh, and said, "It's my girlfriend's mom. She texts me all the time."
Yes boys and girls, you read that right. The eighteen year old boy's girlfriend's mom was texting him. All through his dinner.

I thought about that for a few seconds and then had to tell this young man that I have known for years that there was something very, very wrong about that. He agreed and went on to tell me that both of her parents try to run his life. And the mother calls and texts him all the time.
During the three weeks that have passed since that little experience, I have been noticing other very troubling signs about parents in my generation.

We need to park the helicopters, turn over our pilot's license, and leave these kids alone.
I'm blessed to have kids who are my friends on Facebook. What I do for them in return for that honor is to pretend like I'm not on there. You know the drill. If you have kids old enough to let you drive them and their friends in your car, I hope you have already mastered this skill. You drive. And you listen. To every single word. But you do not join in. And you pretend you aren't even listening. This is how you learn. And how they continue to want to go places with you.But there are women my age on Facebook commenting on every single thing their child posts. Every status update, every comment - everything. And, to make matters worse, they comment on other kids' pages. They are stalkers. Without the sense to pretend otherwise.
Some colleges battle with parents calling their kids every morning to wake them up. Or texting them after each and every class to find out how it went. Sure, I am sad as can be that my kids are away at college. But, I'm smart enough to give them some space. And I bought them alarm clocks years ago.

Now back to my son's friend. What I wanted to say to this boy was, "Run. As fast as you can." But I didn't. I wanted to ask him what kind of girlfriend or wife that young girl would become if her mother was that masterful at running other people's lives. I wanted to tell him normal people my age just don't text 18 year old boys. But, I bit my tongue and only told him I thought that was odd behavior for a woman my age. And that it must be uncomfortable for him to deal with.

Three days later he broke up with the girl.

Smart young man.

Now if only the adults were that smart.