Shrinkage as caused by the teen ager

 Now that it is nearly Winter I can stop posting about the summer and talk about current topics. Or maybe this is just a general topic and not really current.  

When we were in a Wal Mart mega store my daughter suddenly made me very afraid. She asked me if I would buy her some sort of lipstick  or some cosmetic.  I dont recall what I said if I had the chance to say anything before she pulled the cosmetic out of her pocket and sort of post threatened me that if I had said no, she would have stolen it.  

Wah..... T.F?   

Now, a) I dont know if she would have actually stolen it, maybe she would have taken it out at some point, as she in fact did, and put it back or had me buy it, or b) maybe she realized that she could still get caught and didnt want that and was going to produce it anyway and not really steal it. 

Still, I got very frightened after that and watched her cautiously in the store especially around the small items things like earrings and those things she likes.  I tried to keep a glance on her at all times.  

Two things about this which dismay me quite a bit.  1. I have a store myself, am a small retailer, and although I dont think many people do or can steal in my shop, it is a concern that I have to have to watch people and make sure there are no five finger discounts.  In fact I am disturbed if anything gets stolen. As happened just like two weeks ago when I realize now that these two guys stole a t shirt. I have to pay for it. Usually the person who makes the least money has to pay for it. Usually the people stealing can afford it, as it happened this time that one guy bought a shirt while the other was stealing. They had money enough.  

But I digress.  Sadly.  2. Being that it seems that teenagers are a big segment of

the shoplifters.  Again sadly I can understand why this is.  Of course I do not condone it.  Of course not.  The problem is, teenagers have to explore and try everything that is dangerous and "against" society and everything that they were told not to do from little kid on.  So, drinking, smoking, doing drugs, and shoplifting.   Also, they have to impress their peers.  The teenager who knows the difference between right and wrong and maintains their integrity in the face of peer pressure.... hats off.  Peer pressure is a terrible thing, especially for teenagers.   And also, related to the first reason, they do it for the kicks.  They dont really need it, they just like the thrill.  "Hey, wow, this cost me nothing".  Great, but someone had to pay for it.  Usually the person making the least money has to pay for it, in a small store, or in a restaurant. If someone runs off without paying for their meal, the waiter/waitress has to pay for it.  

I dont think I am going to change anything by writing anything here, so, I am only noting.  

But 55 per cent of shoplifters started when they were teenagers and one fourth of shoplifters are teenagers.  

The statistic that is bothering is that many shoplifters who start as teenagers continue to be shoplifters into their twenties and dont "grow out of it".   And even more loathsome is that these people have trouble finding and keeping a job.  In fact they can become petty criminals. 

So, if you think your teenager is just going through a phase, remember that NOT ALL teenagers are shoplifters and if you dont do something about it, more than, oh, they will change, then you may be helping your child to in fact NOT grow out of it.  

It is always a tough line to follow.  Because on the one hand, and I am contradicting myself now, I realize, your child will not be the same person at 25 as they were at 15, they will have concluded a really crazy growth spurt time of their life.  On the other hand, bad habits formed early, have to be reversed and re wired in the brain.  The sooner they are rewired, the better. 

Since the summer I have not been out with my teen age daughter, so I cant really say if she has carried through on one more bad habit.  She is going through a period of , to paraphrase Rage against the Machine, "eff you, I wont do what you told me to do" and that could mean that she has tried the five finger discount.  I guess I should be a good parent and put it to her again, its just that I think we have gone through some pretty high voltage nagging sessions of "dont do this" "this is not good" that there is only so much nagging that we can dish out and that she can take, that I think for the time, I may not broach the subject.  Yes, another contradiction of all I have said, I guess. 

And then there are times we parents just have to lay off and hope the kids are doing the right thing.  

A rerelease of Plastikman "sheet one" coming out any day now, made me go back to the CD I have of this and listen to it.  30 years old?  

Mistake : No More. 2 out of 3 bad. O Hare is off my list!

This is NOT that terrible O¨Hare airport

 NO MORE.  

Thats it.  I didnt make a mistake, but it was bad again and I wont give them another chance.  Strike Three.  No benefit of the doubt.  

I AM NEVER GOING THROUGH O HARE AIRPORT IN CHICAGO AGAIN.  NEVER. Unless the price is super super good. And even then I will think twice.  

I have been through many airports in Europe and you get them pinned down. This one is good, this one is good some of the time, this one (Heathrow in London) I will never go through again.  

And then you have a limited amount of ways to get to your destination in the US. Philadelphia, Minniapolis, Detroit, Chicago.  

This is the Boardman river NOT Chicago

Now, Chicago is strictly stricken from the list.  It just is a bad airport.  You know, bigger is not better.  Bigger is just more chaotic and more time consuming.  

Let me intervene and tell you how this connects with my general topic of dad 40 per cent at home.  

See, you have kids you are taking along.  It is more difficult if they are younger, but still even when they are teenagers you have to calculate time differently. If you have an airport which cant get your documents correct any time and it takes 20 minutes at the checkout counter, you get more stressed out (that always was happening to me at my first stop leaving vacation, what could I do?) If the terminals are far from one another, it is fast walking and more stress to stay together. How long a wait can you or they stand as a lay over.  These and several other questions will decide which airport you go through if you have several choices.  Please make no mistake, choosing the best airport... well is the best. 

Bigger is not better. If you have a big airport, people are coming in from all over

This is my friends former house Not OHare

the world and they are all funneled into ONE customs area, coming into the US or leaving for overseas.  One area.  You want to know how long that line can be? 

I suffer from anxiety, so the more barriers they throw at you at an airport, the more you freak out and dont want to use them as much.  

But who would think that after my last glowing report on O Hare in Chicago, they would totally get it wrong again and totally piss me off and stress me out so my daugthers were saying, "its all right dad, we ll still make it, we will get through"

It started off at the customs again.  How long have they existed and they still dont seem to have it correct?  Man, you would think we were in Tel Aviv or some place with danger and they have to  do a thorough border control.  But the main thing is, they have a line that can stretch and wind for a kilometer or more.  If you are making a connection and have to go through customs, you need more than an hour layover to get through customs.  And that is pushing it.  Two hours. 

Our Lake NOT a customs line in O Hare

Granted the line did move along, not as well as when I wrote my entrance to O Hare a couple weeks ago, but it wasnt NOT moving, that would be Tel Aviv.  And they dont really care when or where your flight is.  They are not going to hurry up "for you".   That is not their concern at all.  Still, I dont know why they have to make a big fuss and time consumption for people GOING out of the US.  Yeah, yeah, move along, you want to leave, no problem by us, fine, have a nice travel, go go go.  But no, it is as fast coming into the country as leaving.  Mmmm, a little faster leaving. 

But really got my goat was the control for getting on the plane.  Yes I know that the limit for water goods is 100 mililiters.  No liquids.  But sauces??  IN a can which cant be opened unless you have a can opener? A sealed tin can?  What can I do with that?  Really, couldnt they just have inspected it and seen that it was totally sealed?  I am going to threaten the plane captain with a can of instant food?  "Take me to Cuba or I will open this can of spaghettios, oh do you have a can opener so i can do that, and make a bomb and blow up the plane".  I was so angry because it was a present for my daughter on her birthday in September and they were taking away a sealed tin can.  Someone please give me a rational explanation for them taking away my sealed can of Spaghettios.  Yes, they inspected it, they could see it was sealed.  Did the man who supposedly made a bomb in the UK use liquids from what?  Cosmetics or chemicals, but spaghettios?  I can make a bomb from the liquid in spaghettios?   

I am not sure if that had anything to do with O Hare, but yes it did, because it is

Busted. They took my spaghettios I was going to hijack the plane with

a big airport and they probably dont make a good paycheck, not that it is O Hare who is paying them, but its a big airport and lots of people yelling at them.  If they can get back occasionally at some poor weak slob like me, it makes their day. I guess.  Well, ok, but he ruined mine and O Hare lost several customers because no one in my family is ever going through O Hare ever again. Even my kids hate the airport. (Dad, why did you book us through O Hare, you know it is terrible).   

I still want to contact them and ask them about this rule, and I will get the last laugh, because I am never going that way again.  And since American Airlines goes through Chicago and not Detroit, that means I wont be booking with American Airlines anymore.  

And lastly, I recommend to all my wonderful readers out there, all ten of you (plus 1000 Singaporeans of late) DO NOT go through O Hare.  Parents travelling with kids coming into the US or out of the US..... DO NOT.  You want to put up with your kids getting antsy in line waiting waiting waiting. And I dont blame them if they do, even I got really antsy.  And then they start complaining and crying.  O Hare is not parent or kid friendly.  NO place to sit while at customs.  No fast line for families with small children.  No empathy or sympathy.  Two hour layover is necessary just to get through customs.  OHare, you suck.  

For once and all O HARE is one if not THE worst airport I have been in and that is with about twenty airports experience.  Thumbs down, stay away, find another way. As Grandmaster Flash says, d-d-d dont do it.  O Hare in Chicago is 

THE END.  

I listened to Dylan's "New Morning"  LP especially "Day of the Locusts" which is about how O Hare airport sucks.  Well, in a way yes.