Cool Moms Club

My friend Becky and I have apparently been granted admission into what is known to tweens everywhere as "The Cool Moms Club." How long this status will last is uncertain. Possibly, even fleeting. So, what exactly is this club and where can you sign up, you ask? Let me back up for you and tell you how it all began...

The girls love music and ask to go to concerts frequently. They hear them advertised on a daily basis on the radio. The unfortunate thing is that because of the town we live in, the over-whelming majority of these shows are at clubs and bars. Try explaining that to your 10 and 11 year old. "That stinks!" "That's not fair!!!" "Do old people even like this music?"

Well, finally along came a concert that was playing at the Orleans Arena and was advertised as "all ages." Not only that, but it was a band that Hannah and Eva were crazy about. I checked the prices...$30. Were they serious? Since I also happen to like this band and, seeing as how the girls were still too young to go to a concert by themselves, I decided that I would take them. Plus, Rob wasn't interested in going in the least. That was it. We were going. It was all set.

We ended up going with some good friends of ours, Becky and two of her kids, Drew and Kathryn. Plus, Hannah and Eva brought along a friend of theirs, Haily. So here were Becky and I, in the middle of arena rock concert madness... along with hundreds of other parents, following at a safe distance behind our children who weren't even old enough to drive. At least we weren't alone in the insanity.

The concert itself was actually amazing. Think of 'Cirque du Soleil' for the tween set. There were gymnasts and acrobats, mimes, a guy on stilts, and burlesque-style dancers. It was all in good fun, though, and immensely entertaining. Out of all of the concerts I have been to in my life, none can possibly come close to the spectacle of variety and performance art that I saw that night. We had a blast!

At school the other day, several of the girls' friends ran up to me and said, "You took Hannah and Eva to the 'Panic at the Disco' concert?!! You are such a cool mom!" Wow... really? Do my children think so, too? Now, is that a lifetime status or is it revocable once they're in middle school and they have friends over while I'm singing karaoke?