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{"id":23,"date":"2012-06-12T09:29:00","date_gmt":"2012-06-12T09:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/06\/last-day-of-school-pool-party-what-was-i-thinking\/"},"modified":"2012-06-12T09:29:00","modified_gmt":"2012-06-12T09:29:00","slug":"last-day-of-school-pool-party-what-was-i-thinking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/wordynerdy\/2012\/06\/last-day-of-school-pool-party-what-was-i-thinking\/","title":{"rendered":"Last Day of School Pool Party–What was I Thinking???"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u201cHow many kids can I invite to the pool party?\u201d Ling asked over the phone last weekend while I was away on a women\u2019s getaway.
<\/a>
\u201cHow many do you want to invite?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 20.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUm, that\u2019s kind of a lot,\u201d said I, mostly thinking about how many hot dogs I\u2019d need to buy for a pack of hungry teens.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I don\u2019t know who I can cut!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, OK, but keep it to 20.\u201d<\/p>\n

She kept it to 26.<\/p>\n

And of course, this is all my fault. \u00a0I\u2019m the one who\u2019s been pressuring her to have friends over, to host movie nights, to throw parties, to do something, anything social. \u00a0Unless her mostly Asian-immigrant crowd of friends are excluding her, the social life for her circle IMHO is dire. <\/p>\n

\u201cBelieve me, your friends aren\u2019t having fun. \u00a0You can really bless them!\u201d I\u2019ve said over the past two years.<\/p>\n

Several weeks ago, after her successful birthday party (the only time there\u2019s an \u201cexcuse\u201d to party), I suggested, \u201cWhy don\u2019t you have friends over every week this summer? \u00a0A movie night? \u00a0A pool party? \u00a0Anything!\u201d<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been the\u00a0social life\u00a0Tiger Mom, but all to no avail.<\/p>\n

Until today. <\/p>\n

Because she actually considered my offer.<\/p>\n

Now I\u2019m having a minor panic attack because it wasn\u2019t until 4:45 this morning that I considered what 20 hormonal teenagers and a pool can do, especially a murky pool because we\u2019ve sprung a leak and can\u2019t keep the water in balance. \u00a0Nightmare visions of kids drowning and resting on the bottom of the pool unseen have been dancing in my head all morning.<\/p>\n

Scott and I have been plotting, can we do a sign-in list? \u00a0Should we do the buddy system? \u00a0But there\u2019s no way teens in bathing suits are going to remember to watch out for their buddy unless it\u2019s a cute person of the opposite sex.<\/p>\n

How am I going to grill, life-guard, drive Kai to a voice lesson in the middle of it all, and ensure safety? \u00a0I feel like the quintessential reckless teen\u2013so swept up in the social potential I\u2019ve forgotten about sane adult responsibilities.<\/p>\n

So pray for us if you\u2019re reading this sometime between 11:15 and late afternoon. <\/p>\n

I think I\u2019m going to need every prayer I can get.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"