Evidently, this is a very confusing question to Bennett?
We're driving along today when he asks me, "Um, Mom...what in the world are you supposed to say when someone says, 'hey, what's up?'...I mean, I just have no clue how to answer. Reed (a 14 year old neighbor boy) always asks me that when he sees me."
Have I really neglected teaching my children the finer points of salutations? Do we really not have the ability to reason this through? Does this question really cause you to stop dead in your tracks and give the 'deer-in-the-headlights' look? Have we not introduced this question into the little bubble world you currently occupy? So many questions running thru my head and so few answers.
So, as nonchalantly as I can, without any remnants of guilt laced in my speech, I educate him on 'The Proper Way to Respond to a Teenage Boy". The instruction began by informing him that this phrase was in reality just a synonym of the word "hi" or "hello". You should have seen the look of understanding lighten up his face...i know hello. I then lead him into deeper waters, explaining that he's just asking in a 'cool' way how his day is going. The light bulb of his mind is now officially on and a knowing comprehension glows across his enlightened face.
He now knows how to be cool, in the teenage sense of the word...and isn't that all any of us want in life.
