or
Party Town USA
or
Dumb and Dumberer
Wow this post could have so many great titles but first you need to read the following articles (either one will do but like a car crash you may not be able to turn away)
then we can discuss
bad parents
bad kid
Ohhh kay where to start?????????
Drugs, alcohol, and nicotine are a problem for kids (and adults) everywhere. JUST SAY NO doesn't work. Expecting kids to make smart decisions ain't gonna cut it. Outlawing alcohol was tried and failed. I bet all of my readers did some shit as teenagers. As Forest Gump said 'Shit Happens'. And thank God in the 70s, 80s and 90s there weren't cell phones recording everything and publishing it everywhere for pepritutidity.
But nowhere in my checkered past did I do drugs with parents. I couldn't imagine a situation where a parent would pass me a plate of coke. Nor for that matter a big old spliff (but that might be a little easier to imagine than coke). And pills---no way.
But let's be honest. We all tell our kids not to drink and drive. And then we drink and drive. Maybe it's one drink or maybe its 4 over a couple of hours--but teenagers pick up on hypocrisy and every time you have a cocktail, and a beer and two glasses of wine and then drive the family home your kids note that.
Aspen for sure has a party culture to it---some of the locals came for the party in the 70s and 80s and still want to keep it going. Tourists come from out of town and like to party while they are on vacation. Shoot, Vegas has an ad campaign of "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." and while Aspen has more class than Vegas it channels much of the same energy.
For sure this isn't just an Aspen thing. Kids are drinking and drugging and vaping in every high school bathroom in the USA. If you think they aren't ---well guess again.
I don't think there is a simple answer. The adolescent brain is stupid (not fully developed prefrontal cortex + hormones is a bad combo). Add in cell phones and bad crap gets even badder. Also every town has some stupid parents--hopefully this will end the Lipsey stupidity in this town (although one might have thought doing this to the family Tesla in November might have been enough).
Yea this is the same kid who drove the family Tesla off Maroon Creek Road at 90+ MPH with 5 kids in the car (all are remarkably ok ish ) less than 2 months later are serving up coke Scarface style. Guess this is not a family that can be scared straight or learns a lesson. And then last Thursday at a weird party (it may or may not have been school sanctioned ) is rumored to have been doing lines first in the bathroom and then out in the open. I have been told that Joe the IV is a 'good kid'. Well I don't want my kid anywhere near this kid.
So what do we tell our kids. I am very much open to suggestions but I am starting with:
1. Get the heck away from bad situations. If you see guns, hard drugs (ie not pot or booze), or a party is getting out of hand (property damage, or risky physical activity) leave. Just leave--I don't care how you do it--walk, run. drive, call us as you leave for a ride if you need. Grab your friends or leave em. Whatever is easiest but just leave. Because as the title of this post alludes to --honey badger don't give a shit. Replace honey badger with the law, schools, employers --they aren't going to do a deep dive into exactly who was doing what. If your in the house that was trashed with lots of kids doing drugs and shooting guns you could spend your whole life trying to explain your presence. Just leave.
2. Put the fucking cell phones away. Stop recording all your stupidity and posting it (even on SnapChat). God you kids are so fucking stupid. Pictures often don't tell the whole story, or even the true story, and that is what makes them so dangerous. Do you really want to be telling a prospective employer or college admissions office that it was just flower not coke? Or yea it was coke but you were just pretending and yucking it up. Arg no phones. Employers don't give a shit.
3. Don't do drugs. But if you are going to do drugs in a public place where there are cameras only do it in the bathroom. No video in bathrooms your stupid teenagers. And don't do drugs with parents. Don't accept drugs from parents. Parents that give drugs to kids are creepy and next thing you know will be trying to have sex with you and .........yuck. Lets just say don't do drugs---teenagers with developing prefrontal cortex + hormones are inclined to be stupid enough--adding drugs is a recipe for doing really stupid shit (and one of your stupid shit friends is gonna record it and post it). And the law don't give a shit.
On a lighter note for those of you who have not watched the honey badger video there is a link is below
