March 2, 2005
-
I'm trying to recall when I was 14 years old. Was I that self-conscious and easily embarrassed?
Bless his heart, Dmitry can be sunk into a morass of mortification over the oddest things. He somehow managed to cram two 2 liter bottles of soda into an already overstuffed backpack so he wouldn't be seen carrying them in his hands.
Never figured out what is inherently embarrassing about carrying something, but he did the same thing last fall for a school party.
When I mentioned Brianna might be with me when he was picked up, he grimaced. Upon my protesting this lack of enthusiasm about seeing his darling niece, he said it's too embarrassing when I open the sliding door and she yells "Hi, Unca Dima!"
I gave him his allowance so he could buy back his cellphone before spring break (he'd been caught playing with it during history several days ago, and there's a $10 fine for its return), but it turns out the HR teacher wouldn't give it to him during homeroom, instead telling him to come back after 7th period.
From what I gather, the teacher may as well dress Dmitry in a tutu and put him on a stage....that's how conspicuous he'd feel (something about 11th graders seeing him). So he passed on it, deciding he'd prefer to do without it for the next week and a half rather than expose himself to some unspecified humiliation.
It must be hard to be him.
Comments (4)
I swear you have my Robert with a different name!! Well, Robert only wishes he had a cel phone to have taken away, but he gets embarassed by the same sorts of things Dmitry does...which is why I found myself one day digging through lost and found for Robert's good Yale hoodie (I did make Robert help dig for it....once he made sure no one would see him actually looking through lost and found). When I've gone into the school with Katherine to fetch Robert he generally walks a ways in front of me or behind me and pretends that I'm not really there with his little sister. Funny, it must be hard to be a teen aged boy....
Sounds like I've got the Russian edition of your Robert.
What's odd is, it tends to be girls that get the press about being easily embarrassed. I've found boys, on the whole, to be far more self-conscious.
Can't you somehow persuade him that he LOOKS foolish when he acts like that? You know, embarrass him out of being obsessed with being embarrassed?
I had a HS teacher say something along the lines of it being a sign of being grown up when you are not automatically embarassed to be seen with your parents! Try THAT on Dima!
Comments are closed.