DON’T OVERDO IT
                                                            By Tom Licari

                                                   

What happens when your kids and their friends are tired of hearing you preach “don’t overdo it” as they prepare to go out for a night on the town, even when none of them are driving? Well, they snap your picture and plaster it on a tee shirt and all show up wearing your worst Larry David impression. We have a summer home in Kismet, Fire Island, located a few hundred feet from the water taxi dock. Unfortunately, that means that as my now young adult children, Casey and Nicholas wait for the 10:30 P.M. boat to carry them away to Ocean Beach they congregate with their friends at our home to “pre game”.

 

As parents launching our kids into adulthood, we are all faced with the daunting task of teaching them how to be responsible. Unless you have your head under a rock, let’s face it, our kids are going to drink. Do you yell at them, punish them or find an approach they might be able to relate to? I chose the mantra “don’t overdue it”, but I overdid saying it. One night I was wearing my Spamalot “I’m Not Dead Yet” shirt and the kids got the message loud and clear. Both phrases when taken together actually sunk in, although I never expected to see my face, with veins popping from my neck, on a bunch of tee shirts.