10/17/2011 So the fall/early winter is birthdayville in my family. Me: September; older daughter: October; my sister: November; toddler nephew: December; and “troubled teen:” December. As my girls get older, it’s more and more impossible to be creative with gifts. A set of nail polishes in a cute box or a CD of a pop band used to go pretty far—now the gifts need to be meaningful and that often means expensive.

Troubled teen made it easy for me this year by selecting her own gift—and an early one at that. She requested VIP tickets to see some rapper named TechN9ne. VIP tickets means you get to be part of a small group who is invited to a “meet and greet” the afternoon of the concert, first entrance to the venue, first choice of seats, back stage passes, and a huge box of cheap swag. Yep—no iPods, perfume, or high end dinner certificates—more like bandanas, stickers, a pendant and chain with his name, a sweat towel, and a backpack thing.

I agreed to it, knowing full well that this performer is not my thing and to me he’s gross—but I read up on him and he seems like a pretty good businessman to me. He’s quite successful of late, and his music is on the soundtrack of a couple of movies. He’s worked his way up over the years, and he’s found the right gimmick and the target audience he needed. Since my daughter is mad for him, despite how rough and stupid his lyrics are, I guess his target audience must be white teenage girls who put on airs like they could handle “the hood,” but they’re really from educated, middle-class families and would be eaten alive.

I take this with a grain of salt, because my daughter’s tastes changes from minute to minute. One month she’s frilly and froofy, and another month she’s tough and wearing tight jeans and t-shirts with pictures of crying Cholas on them, and drawing in her eyebrows with jet black ink. Another time she might be preppy and borrow my clothes! She’s always been a chameleon and probably always will be. She may like this music now, but I also know she loves Disney tunes and old Britney Spears and Backstreet Boys from when she was in elementary school. She still watches cartoons, talks baby talk to her kitties, and cuddles with her grandmother.

So she got her early birthday present, which set me back $150, but she’s already been to the concert and was able to show off in front of her other goofus friends and feel like a big shot. She met the “stars” and made friends with their manager and was thrilled when they not only invited her to their next show, but told her how pretty and smart she is. She was on cloud nine for days, and it was a nice thing to see. It’s been over a week, and she’s been lovely.

You live to see your children be happy and smile, and she sure smiled BIG. She wasn’t stoned or drunk when she came home, she didn’t get into any accidents, and I didn’t get a phone call from a police officer; in fact, she was the driver and she took that responsibility very seriously. It was sort of a test of her maturity and she passed. As a reward, I let her decorate her bathroom (which doubles as our guest bathroom) with her TechN9ne hand towel and wall hanging. Oy—I am crazy.