Teen spirit
Those who were of a certain age in the heyday of grunge music really know what teen spirit smells like. We, who missed that, have to settle for our own experiences for such olfactory impressions.
As father to two teen-age daughters, who are quite well brought up in matters of hygiene, this is seldom something I encounter, though it is a familiar phenomenon since sometimes a band of teens of both sexes invade the house, leaving after them... well, you know, some teen spirit.
What I frequently meet, though, are a few teen-behaviours worthy of neologisms for their proper understanding and inclusion into our language:
Teen spilling (noun. Swe:Tonårsrest, Fin: Teinijätös) is one of my favourite frustrations. It means that little drop of milk left in the container or that last one biscuit in the box of cookies, left for the impression that all did not run out and - I believe above all - so that the teenager would be spared dealing with the waste.
My younger daughter, in particular, is suffering from drop-handedness (noun. Swe: Släpphänthet, Fin: Päästökätisyys). Using a dictionary, I declare that the medical term for the condition is manoguttulation. Under the influence of this disease, anything that touches the hand of the teenager is soon found on the floor, covering, if not just the floor, some other thing that suffered the very same fate earlier. Sooner than you might imagine, the entire floor is covered. It is a difficult condition to cure.
Teenmean (adj. Swe: tonårs-stygg, Fin: teinijulma) is the inevitable state where a teenager, who knows his/her parents all too well for their safety, as a means to grow into independence, turns all guns against a parent, pushing all the right buttons for fury and frustration with a display of anger and well-directed verbal missiles.
For this one, I can only say take cover and accept what is coming. You may take comfort from the fact that soon this will be over - if not sooner, then in a few years when things come to leaving the home.That might happen when they are teenups (noun. Swe: toxen, Fin: teikuinen), meaning they are not quite teens any longer, but by no measure quite grown-ups either. It is closely related to the well known earlier state called tweenhood, but more pleasant to all parties.
As father to two teen-age daughters, who are quite well brought up in matters of hygiene, this is seldom something I encounter, though it is a familiar phenomenon since sometimes a band of teens of both sexes invade the house, leaving after them... well, you know, some teen spirit.
What I frequently meet, though, are a few teen-behaviours worthy of neologisms for their proper understanding and inclusion into our language:
Teen spilling (noun. Swe:Tonårsrest, Fin: Teinijätös) is one of my favourite frustrations. It means that little drop of milk left in the container or that last one biscuit in the box of cookies, left for the impression that all did not run out and - I believe above all - so that the teenager would be spared dealing with the waste.
My younger daughter, in particular, is suffering from drop-handedness (noun. Swe: Släpphänthet, Fin: Päästökätisyys). Using a dictionary, I declare that the medical term for the condition is manoguttulation. Under the influence of this disease, anything that touches the hand of the teenager is soon found on the floor, covering, if not just the floor, some other thing that suffered the very same fate earlier. Sooner than you might imagine, the entire floor is covered. It is a difficult condition to cure.
Teenmean (adj. Swe: tonårs-stygg, Fin: teinijulma) is the inevitable state where a teenager, who knows his/her parents all too well for their safety, as a means to grow into independence, turns all guns against a parent, pushing all the right buttons for fury and frustration with a display of anger and well-directed verbal missiles.
For this one, I can only say take cover and accept what is coming. You may take comfort from the fact that soon this will be over - if not sooner, then in a few years when things come to leaving the home.That might happen when they are teenups (noun. Swe: toxen, Fin: teikuinen), meaning they are not quite teens any longer, but by no measure quite grown-ups either. It is closely related to the well known earlier state called tweenhood, but more pleasant to all parties.
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