Warning: First reactions COUNT!

You have to love kids.

 

Besides my own, the kid I'm really loving on is Kenton Koos. You've probably heard about him. Nice clean-cut kid who decided to dye his hair green, paint a Mike Tyson-like tattoo on his face and put an oversized ring in his nose for his yearbook picture.

Why?

 

Because he said he did it to push the envelope.

The school's first reaction was to say no, but after some thought and pressing by the ACLU, is now allowing him to submit the picture because it doesn't want to violate Koos free speech rights.

But here's the icing on the cake.

 

Koos says he will need time to THINK about whether he really wants the picture in the yearbook.

 

You really gotta love kids.

They make a big stink over something and then when they finally get it, they decide they aren't sure they really want it in the first place.

 

They just wanted to see how YOU would react.

And that's parenting in a nutshell. Children pushing the limits to see their parents' reactions.

 

And a lot of it has to do with those FIRST reactions.

So you have to be careful. Because if you react badly about an outrageous yearbook photo, your child may think twice before coming to you about a real tattoo, or sex or drugs.

In my opinion, the best bet is to take a deep breath, have the child look in the mirror and ask themselves if the person looking back at them is who they really want to be.

Because in the end, we all have to live with our own decisions.

And hopefully those don't include a tattoo on their face.