Make A Date With Your Kid

Due to recent unforeseen and ridiculous circumstances, I am raising my 16-year old daughter by myself.

That is O.K. She is a very nice teenager and she is taking it very easy on me.

But we don't have the kind of relationship that some of the mothers and daughters in my favorite movies have.

You know, they are best friends and tell each other everything. The daughter does not forbid her mother to sing in the car or talk in front of her friends. The TV daughter does not "borrow" her mother's favorite sweaters and leave them in her locker at school.

Sometimes, when I am eavesdropping on conversations she is having with her dad, I get upset to hear her telling her all the details of her life that she never mentions to me.

A friend of mine watches T.V. every Thursday night with his three kids. Two of them are living on their own, but still they show up to watch their favorite sit-coms with their dad. Every Thursday I get a little bit jealous thinking about the three of them spending time with their parent voluntarily.

So, last week I decided to be a copy-cat and get some of my own one-on-one interaction with my teenager. Since it was clear she wasn't going to spend time with me voluntarily, I pulled the parent card.

I told her that every Thursday night from now on we were going to have dinner somewhere. She had to leave her cell phone in the car. We were not going to Dave's Cosmic Subs every Thursday. We were going to have long dinners at nice places. We were going to spend some quality time together.

So last Thursday we ate outside at a nice restaurant in town. Many nice things happened:

She learned how to put her napkin in her lap at the start of the meal and to not chew her ice.
She learned her mother was not annoying to everyone when a semi-attractive man sitting at the bar sent me a over a glass of wine.
She told a couple who stopped by the table her plans for college (who knew?)
I learned her favorite dessert was creme' brulee and she learned mine was chocolate mousse.
We both had fun.

I think I am really going to like Thursday nights.