Mom, stop! You are not cool.

I'm 53 with an 11 year old daughter. I have been raising girls since 1982. The landscape has changed.  Most of her friends' parents are late 30's, maybe 40. I find myself caught in between generations, so I observe and dissect the nuances. But she doesn't realize that.  It's a foreign place for me to be, but for her it is just normal. So I take it head on and learn everything about her world. Her music, Paramore, her loves -Twilight, what she dislikes - Miley Cyrus, what she doesn't understand - Jamie Spears' pregnancy. I know her as much as anyone can know another.

I'm trying. So I sing along with her music and she says, Mom!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop!!!!!!!!!!! It happens when we are alone or when her little friends are here, equally. We always have music playing. When we are alone, I ask, "No one is even here, so why do you care if I am singing the wrong words or dancing?" And she says, "Because, you are not cool."

Not cool. It's every parents' nightmare. We aren't hip, we're outdated, we don't understand. We dance badly. It is inevitable, so behave accordingly. No dancing or singing in front of her friends.

But definitely in front of her. She'll learn how not to care what anyone thinks of her. Because you don't.