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I have two teenagers who are at ‘that age’ in life when all of a sudden, ‘cool’ is becoming important. Kids are starting to divide themselves into small groups based on coolness. Herds of mildly uncool teens wander the halls while small packs of ‘really cool’ kids stand in the corner and silently mock them.
At least silent mocking doesn’t cause bloodshed, although it can still hurt.
I hear my son say ‘I can’t be friends with that kid there because he is way cooler than I am’. Discrimination based on coolness runs rampant in the middle school. And we never outgrow that, even at 40. At 14 your coolness is based on sneakers. At 40 you are only as cool as the last vacation you took or the car you drive.
Neither Alex nor I had a cool gene to pass on to our kids. I was in band. I wore a giant, fuzzy hat and an orange band jacket. I was about as far away from ‘cool’ as you can possibly get.
Sorry, son, the apple really doesn’t fall far from the tree.
What’s So Great About Being Cool Anyhow?
Just because I didn’t get the cool gene from MY mom am I doomed to a life of uncoolness? Destined to stand on the outskirts at the neighborhood party?
My lack of coolness in middle age pretty much has me avoiding the parties all together. No reason to fake it when I could go home and drink wine and lose myself in a steamy romance book, right? Maybe cool is over rated. Maybe I am just saying that since I am pretty sure if you are uncool at 42 there is not a hell of a lot you can do about it at this point.
I keep telling my son that the uncool kids are the ones that are going to be running this country in 30 years. Sure, they may be skipping the neighborhood party to drink wine and stick their nose in a book but that mysterious gene that controls ‘cool’? Guarantee some uncool science geek will discover it.

I wear many hats in this thing called life. I am a science geek, an introvert, a busy mother of teens and slightly neurotic about dirty dishes. I used to have a really important sounding job in cancer research when I decided to give it all up to be a stay at home mom. I played with Playdough, colored pictures of Barbies and freaked out when the baby ate dog food. Then the second kid came along and I started to think dog food might have nutritional value. What is Fractionated Living? It is meā¦divided by work, life, kids, marriage, and hobbies and trying to come up with the answer to life.
I found this very heartwarming, relatable, and funny! Glad I’m not the only one who believes the mysterious cool gene is overrated. Science and books are way cooler š
So glad you enjoyed the post!