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Home › Articles › Essays › R. J. Learns A Lesson

R. J. Learns A Lesson

By Donna Stone

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"What?" I said, still the parent of a teen, exceedingly slow-witted. "What did you say?" My little heart did flippity flops as comprehension began to dawn on me.

Now, the singular fact that someone had used my card without permission was enough to send this parent's blood pressure skyrocketing. The situation was slightly complicated by the unfortunate -- although not uncommon -- fact that NOW WE ARE OVERDRAWN. This would not be so bad except, well, the last check I wrote was to pay the electric bill. A little late. Okay, really late. They were going to cut off power Tuesday. I had scraped together the payment and hand-delivered the check late Monday. R. J. had made the charge for his computer software on that same Monday, knowing full well there was no money in the bank. My precious child assumed that he could simply go to the bank, repay what he owed, and everyone would be happy. No problem.

The conversation from this point on is not very pretty. It was mostly moaning on my part, interspersed with my demands to know "What were you thinking?!?!" I received the stock answer straight from page one of The Teenager's Guide to Driving Mom Crazy in Five Easy Steps: "I dunno."

I calmed down relatively soon (everything's relative), and proceeded to introduce my son to the world of bounced checks, overdraft fees, electricity reconnection fees and the importance of never, repeat, NEVER using a credit card without express permission. When I asked R. J. what lesson he learned from this experience he said, "Always special order, even if it costs twice as much."


* Names have been changed to protect the guilty.
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