au revoir to my forties

Confession… I don’t think any of my children have seen any of the John Hughes coming of age movies. Yes, they love all the Home Alone movies , Uncle Buck, The Great Outdoors and Christmas Vacation is on repeat all year long in my house. However, its damn shame they won’t sit down long enough to watch just one of the beloved films I cherish from my youth. While the films might be dated; they can’t imagine talking on a telephone attached to a wall via long curly cord, yep. Nor can they identify moping around while listening to vinyl records after a break up or physically rolling your car windows up BUT I do believe each one could identify with the characters from Breakfast Club, Sixteen Candles, Pretty In Pink, Some Kind of Wonderful, et al.

Maybe it’s a blessing they haven’t watched them. I don’t know. I do know some of the problems from those movies are still problems for teenagers today, amplified. I’m sure there is a mean rich girl that everyone wants to be like or date. The jock that has hidden pressure to be the best and is scared inside. The nerd, the band geek, the class clown, the bad boy rebel and maybe the occasional LGBTQ; a place at the table for all courtesy of Mr. Hughes.

His movies personally gave me hope. I believed I could be better and I could have it all that’s why I watched those movies over and over. Escapism. It kept me trying and searching for more. I have to admire sometimes I forget all those life lessons from Hughes; to love, laugh, forgive, be humble and don’t judge.

So what movies give my children those important lessons? I have to say I don’t know, maybe it’s Outer Banks; that seems to come up a bit. I can certainly see some similarities with Hughes films and the Outer Banks series. For the record, I would have been a Pogue! I pray they get hope somewhere because it has to come from somewhere else other than your parents. I mean who listened to their parents as teenagers and who knew more than their parents, ha?!? Right, exactly my point. I feel helpless as a parent of teenagers most of the time. I pray they make good decisions every day and don’t give up so easily on their dreams. And speaking of dreams…I didn’t marry Jake Ryan and I don’t live in a mansion but I came out okay. I still have lots of fun and lots of hope for the next 50 years of my life! Never give up:-)

PS. Be on the lookout for some crazy adventures with me and the fam this Summer!