Homecoming Has Changed

Times sure have changed since I was a teenager.

This Saturday is Homecoming for my younger son.  We've spent the past few weeks choosing an outfit for him (which mostly consisted of finding a tie with just the right shade of purple to match her dress), buying a corsage, and finding a restaurant that was willing to make a reservation for fourteen teenagers. Pretty much the same routine as when I was in high school.

It's the "inviting" to Homecoming that has changed.  Gone are the days when the boy asked the girl as they walked between classes, or maybe passed her a note if he was a little shy.

Now boys are expected to go all out on the Homecoming "proposal".  There are entire websites devoted to coming up with the perfect, creative invitation.  A few I found:

• Choreograph a 60 second dance and perform it during a break in her sporting event
• Create a scavenger hunt 
• Write different parts of the message in chalk outside her house for 4 or 5 days
• Spell out the invitation with candles on her driveway

The lists go on and on, and honestly, these were some of the easier ones.  I've heard of kids spending hundreds of dollars on flowers, balloons and presents - just to ask someone to a dance.

While I suppose the intention is sweet, I've got a few issues.  First, this is putting an awful lot of pressure on boys to come up with the perfect proposal.  T said that girls are hoping for something unique that hasn't been done before.  I was reading a blogger friend's post, and her son decided to opt out of Homecoming because it was too hard to come up with an invitation.  I feel bad for him.

And can we talk about the future?  I do wonder what these kids will expect when it comes time for their marriage proposals. There were no scavenger hunts or choreographed dances when my hubby asked me to marry him, although that would have been very entertaining.

After much debate (and no help from me - harumph), T came up with a cute, easy way to ask his girlfriend to the dance.  He is the Charger mascot at football games, and he asked her at half time in front of the spectators in the stands.  She looks pretty happy about it.

Speaking of Homecoming, it's spirit week at T's school, and today was "tacky tourist" day. He wore his dad's sandals, and my hubby was quite offended that they classified as tacky.  I suggested maybe it was time for a new pair of sandals.

T asked if he could borrow my camera for the outfit.  I told him to take pictures, so I could see what a day in the life of a high school junior looked like - future blog post? This is the best of what he came up with.  Sigh.