Not everything in my life
revolves around tattoos. It sure seems that way sometimes, but the center of
our world is really our kids; our girls. They’ve obviously grown up around
tattoos and tattooed people, so they have come to know a more unconventional life
than many of their friends and that’s okay. But, regardless of what we do for a
living, we’re still parents first.
With parenthood, you have
love and understanding with doses of discipline sprinkled with a bit of creativity. Augie is quite creative and Sofie proved that
with him one night. This night has now become known as “The Thong Inferno.”
When Sofie was 14 years
old, she received a gift card from Victoria’s Secret for Christmas. It was NOT
from us!! We had no idea she was receiving this gift until she opened it up at
a family gathering. She was excited; I was horrified. I didn’t want my kid
buying under-skivies that should only be worn by women of legal age. Sure, that
may make me sound like a prude, but I don’t care. While you’re living in my
house and not an adult yet, your butt will have full coverage.
Before we could tell the
gift givers that they need to take the card back, Sofie promised that she
would only buy hoodies, t-shirts or yoga pants with it. She begged us to let
her keep it. We said she could and let her know that NO UNDER-SKIVIES WILL BE
PURCHASED. She agreed.
Every year, after Christmas is over, I always
take the girls to the mall so they can spend the money and gift
cards they got as presents. This has been our tradition for the past seven or
eight years. Before, they got Build-a-Bear gift cards, ones for clothing or
jewelry; innocent stuff. The Victoria Secret gift card was a game changer.
Thank goodness Gia didn’t get one.
I reminded her the night
before our outing, the morning of our outing and in the car on our way there
that there will be only hoodies, shirts or pants being bought with said gift
card. I even reminded her as we approached the store. “I know, Mom! I know!” is
all she kept saying.
I let her mosey around
the store while Gia and I looked at the shirts. I’d peek over at Sofie from
time to time to keep an eye on what she was looking at….so far so good. My mind
was at ease when I saw her with a hoodie and a pair of pants draped over her
arm. Yay, she’s listening! I turned my attention back to Gia.
Not a minute later, I
turned around again and saw Sofie hovering over a display of underwear. Taking Gia
by the hand, we headed over to the crowd surrounding all of these drawers of
underwear. I snuck up behind her and peered over her shoulder. She didn’t know
I was there as she held up a pair of lacey butt floss. Oh, hell no! I tapped her on the shoulder. She spun around with a
look of horror that quickly turned into anger.
Before I could say
anything, she spouted off about how uncool I was and how unfair I am because
all of her friends wear thongs. Really?
Justin the quarterback wears these? Huh….that’s good to know, but it doesn’t
change the fact that I said no. She
continued to spew justifications my way. My favorite was when she tried to
justify the importance of not having panty lines with yoga pants. Then wear a longer shirt. She didn’t
like that answer.
By this point, all the people around the display were staring at us. I could care
less. I just gave them a wink and a smile and followed my pissed off child as
she stormed away from me. Good times!
She eventually made her way to the checkout line with the clothes I approved of,
not saying a word to me. I told her that Gia and I will wait outside of the
store for her. Big mistake! But I wouldn’t find that out until later.
It wasn’t until about a
week or so later, when Sofie asked me if I could put her laundry in the dryer
that I realized that I had been had. As I’m taking the clothes out of the
washing machine, a small wad of fabric fell onto the floor. At first, I couldn’t
tell what the soggy lump was, but when I picked it up, I knew! It was a thong. No she didn’t! Yes, she did.
I remembered seeing a
sign on the underwear display that said, “Buy 2 Get 1 Free,” so I knew there
was more. I pulled all of the wet clothes out the dryer and hunted for the
other two pairs. I only found one more. With two dank thongs in my hand, I headed
upstairs. She was standing in the kitchen with her back to me.
“Hey, Sof. Is there something you’d like to tell me?” I
asked as the thongs dangled from my finger. When she spun around, you
would have thought she’d seen a ghost. I didn’t give her a chance to answer.
“Where’s the third pair?”
I queried.
“Uhhhh…..I’m wearing
them.” She knew she was busted and didn’t even try to give an explanation.
“Give them to me,” I said
as her eyes about popped out of her head.
“Now? Here?”
“If that’s what you want
to do. I’d rather you go into the bathroom.”
With her head down, she headed
to the bathroom to take them off. She returned a short time later with the
evidence and an apology. Very calmly, I told her that I wasn’t sure how I wanted
to handle this, but she will be getting some sort of consequence for buying
these when she wasn’t supposed to. She nodded her head and went back to doing
what she was doing.
A few hours later, when Augie
called to say he was on his way home from work, I filled him in on what
happened. All he said was, “Okay. I will see you when I get home.” That was
it. Normally, I can read him pretty well, but this time, I had no clue what he
was thinking.
I was downstairs watching
TV when he arrived home. He gave me a kiss and asked where Sofie and the thongs
were. I told him she was in her room listening to music and I pointed to the
thongs on the floor. He picked them up and headed upstairs. A short time later,
I heard them go outside.
I wasn’t sure what they
were doing out there, but I assumed that he was throwing them in the outside
trash and wanted her to watch him do that. Well, that’s what I get for
assuming. It wasn’t until Gia and her friend (who was sleeping over that night)
came downstairs and told me what was going on. About that time, Augie and Sofie
came inside.
“Oh my god, Mom,” Gia
started. “Dad burned Sofie’s underwear!” What????
Before I could get off
the couch, Sofie and Augie came walking in. He had a huge grin on his face and
was doing a little dance. She was laughing. What
the hell is going on?
“Mom, Dad burned my thongs!
He lit them on fire in the driveway……AND he sang and danced around them. It was
so embarrassing,” said Sofie. Augie, still smiling, nodded his head. I asked
for an explanation.
Augie told me that on the
way home, he was trying to figure out what he could do to teach her a lesson
about doing something after she was told not to. He figured that burning the
underwear would make that point. He said that while it burned, he felt like
singing and dancing. His song, I was told, was about how his daughter who bought
underwear that she was told not to buy and that he was BBQ-ing them.
“And Mom, cars were going
by while Dad sang and danced. He got louder and danced more crazy each time they went by,”
Sofie told me as she laughed. She went on to say that she has learned her
lesson and promised that she will never buy thongs again. And she’s kept that
promise. Well, at least that I know of, but I now keep a closer eye on that laundry
of hers.
I guess we can call
that one, “Lessons Learned From a Tattoo Dad.”