Teenager Talk

Having a teenager in the home is a little like visiting a foreign country sometimes. An english speaking country that is but one that does have it's own unique words and phrases for some things that leaves you not a little confused sometimes.

We experienced this a little whilst living in Canada. Life would be running along smoothly and then you'd need to get something or have something particular done. You'd ask someone and they would just look at you as if you've just popped down to earth from the planet Zog!

"Minced beef? Minced beef? No, sorry have no idea what you're talking about."
"You know, it's sort of beef but minced up in to tiny little pieces?"
"Errmmmm...?"
"You can make beef burgers with it?"
"Beef burgers?"
"You know, those round things in a bun, like you buy at McDonalds?"
Oh, you mean hamburgers?"
"Yes! Minced beef."
"You mean ground beef!"
"Yes! Where do you keep the ground beef?"
"Sorry, we're out of stock..." (OK, the bit about being out of stock is a complete fabrication but the rest was true).

So, all this is basically just to say that teenagers have a whole other language sometimes. In fact sometimes I have no idea what number 1 daughter is talking about! And words have changed - yes I know it's been a long time since I was a teenager and so I can't expect to know the current 'lingo' but honestly... apparently you are no longer billy-no-mates but you're a larry (larry the loner).

Anyway, the other night Harriet came downstairs highly amused at the sight that she had seen upon entering our bedroom... (no, don't go there, it's not what you think!)... and found Richard reading one of Kat's magazines du jour - Sugar if my memory serves me correctly. It was research, apparently, to find out whether the content of the magazine was suitable for a young teenage girl (I love this about him, that he takes his role as a father seriously enough to subject himself to the vacuous writings of a teen girl magazine just to make sure his daughter is safe and protected). The conclusion he reached was that he supposed it was 'ok' which then led on to a general chat about the magazine contents, one regular feature of which is the 'Blurd of the Month' - 'cause using two words is so last season.

Basically this consists of blurring/mixing two words together to create a new one. The first magazine we picked up to look at had a word, or should I say blurd, that so accurately describes the state of Kat's room that last year instead of putting the plain cream carpet we were laying in all the bedrooms we considered buying her a carpet with a discarded clothing pattern! And the word?

Floordrobe
Derivative: floor + wardrobe.
Definition: to turn one's floor into a wardrobe by dumping clothes on it.

So a new word has entered our home. "Kat can you take your clean laundry upstairs and put it away properly - not in the floordrobe!"