Anyways, I got nothing so I'll just follow what she wrote about. Every PCS or life got faces. While parents and grown ups are dealing with issues, we're dealing with another. So here goes....
Anyways…Tip #2
For Adults/older teens: After the PCS news ok more like "shock"
For kids/younger teens:"I'm moving, John Anybody." "WHAT?!? NOOOO." "Yes, I'm moving."
DON'T "BREAK" THE NEWS TO YOUR FRIENDS. TELL 'EM!
Right so by now you know you're moving. You're over the "I don't want to move" tantrum and believe it or not, you're actually somewhat excited to be going to the snow, out of country, or wherever you're going. If you're parents are somewhat sane...they'll tell you on Thursday or Friday. So, what, it gives you Thursday to digest the thought of moving. Then it gives you Friday to think about telling your friends and you probably end up either "chicken out" or too busy to, fine, no problem. Oh look weekends! Thank God, you get two more days to find out a way to tell your friends. You know you should tell your them you're moving but you just don't know how and by the time you want to even start thinking about it, it's Sunday night and you're lying in bed going, "WHAT THE HELL DO I DO?!?" or something like that. *Considering there might be parents reading these...just don't swear in front of your parents alright...that's the quickest way to get them pissed off or you grounded, whichever is worse. If you really got to do it, at least do it in your mind or under the covers. No screaming it though, blankets and pillows aren't sound proof. If you haven't figure that one out already...*
So, from experience, calm down, jog in place or something and chill. You got over the "Honey we're moving." part and I'm sure telling your friends is as easy as your parents telling you the news. If you haven't gotten over the "We're moving." part, do that first. Really you can't tell your friends you're moving if you yourself isn't somewhat calm/sane. (Sounded like what you're parents were/are going through right now. Oh they hide it but you and I know it's there. They're going nuts with the paperwork, house selling, whatever adults do.) So stay calm and think of the best way to TELL your friends and not "break" the news.
I'm sure you're like me, by now you've moved billion of times (or something like that) and each time it gets harder and harder to tell your friends that you're moving. Here's what you do, it's a little something I like to call. APPLY. RINSE. REPEAT.
We're not selling shampoos here and even if we were, it'd be the same. Apply the same tactics that your parents did to tell your friends. If your parents didn't read what I wrote before and their tactics sucks, don't blame them, just come up with something new. "So I heard the snow out in Colorado is nice during this time of year." is a better conversation starter than "OMG I'M MOVING I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO I'M GOING TO MISS YOU SOOOO MUCH."
Rinse. Not going to lie, your friends are probably going to go nuts or somewhat upset that you're moving. It's normal but don't splash the news at them then leave them out to fend for themselves. They're your friends that you've made for how many years you've stayed there, they're your buddies, pal, bros, whatever you call them so don't leave hanging. There's a reason why you can't just leave shampoo in your hair...wash it out geeze before you get your Mom pissed that you didn't completely wash your hair. Rise it, really. Don't leave the shampoo aka your friends hanging. It's not cool at all and just like shampoo...if you leave it in your hair for too long they'll start to stink. (Bad analogy I know but it's the truth.) If you leave your friends hanging there, they'll stink and shut themselves off from you. And oh look you don't want that, remember that social network thing I talked about before? Ya that doesn't work when your friends don't want to see your face let alone talk to you. Got it? Good.
Repeat. Hopefully your parents give you time to let this moving thing sink in. Cuz really...it's going to need some repeating for it to work. Keep talking to your friends and do the things I talked about before. Tell them it's going to be chill and you can still talk and see each other (virtually) as often as possible. Unless you're some dude/dudettes that don't like getting their hair cleaned, you're going to repeat the "hair washing" process right? I hope so...if not...then you're on your own.
To the parents: Believe it or not telling your kids the news of moving is just as difficult as us telling our friends. It's hard, it's crazy, and just like you we got no clue what or how to say it.
If your kids are younger, invite his/her friends over and tell them together of this moving news. (I know what you’re thinking…."LIKE I GOT ANY TIME ON MY HANDS TO HAVE MORE KIDS IN THE HOUSE!" But really, it's fine, just for half an hour, or 10 minutes, even. Really, we don't have that much of an attention span anyways. We just want to feel like we're important but truly we just want to hear it and get the hell out of there so we can play in the backyard or something. But really, it helps.)
If your kids are young teen/teen…don't and I say DON'T invite our friends over. DON'T. Let us handle this on our own alright. We both know that you got more things on your plate like selling the house or going through checklists. You got better things to do than to tell a bunch of teens that "it's ok you can still contact us" in the so called cutest voice. Don't, really, we're fine, we're teens. We can handle ourselves most of the time.
What you can do though, is just kind of check in on us once awhile. Cuz even if we don't admit it, it's kind of cool to "get the attention" from our parents once awhile. That's right, ONCE AWHILE, not EVERYDAY. Just ask something simple like "how are your friends taking it?" and if we answer "fine" don't push it! You might know it's not fine but pushing it and trying to make us talk doesn't help. To the caring Moms out there...really don't. It'll just ruins your "Goody Mom" shoes and image. "Fine" means fine. Even though it might not be. But we're teens alright, we're cool like that and if we can handle the family car, we can handle telling the news to our friends. (I can hear some parent chuckling while reading this. WE HANDLE THE FAMILY CAR JUST FINE ALRIGHT?!?) Back off a bit please, we're teens not kids. Thanks.
Until next time, hug your parents and tell them you love them, grab the keys and go for a ride with your friends and tell them the news gently. Go somewhere off post where your parents can't tack you or something. Wait...unless you got those GPS things on your phone, then just stay on post and don't do anything too crazy that the MPs will wonder what the hell you're up to.
Ya right…you and I both know it's fun to taught the MPs. But keep this on the DL I think they're onto us.
Next tip: Knuckles Tip #3- Packing
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