WHO SHOULD DECIDE?

foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] I was in my room trying to write a book report but other things were on my mind family troubles now just a minute young lady you the house looking like that why can't I you go back into the house and wipe it off your father's right I never can do anything Susie and I had problems all right if only there were something I could do maybe there was something but I'd have to be tactful to make my point so I began writing my masterpiece for solving our family problems an open letter to all the Misunderstood and unappreciated sons and daughters in the world dear friends you should know the troubles my younger sister Susie and I have been having with Mom and Dad about making decisions take last Saturday afternoon a bunch of Susie's friends were going skating and Susie had fixed up a real whopping lunch for her date Freddy when the kids came to pick up Susie the trouble started first off Mom saw they were in a car she wasn't too happy about that but Mom knew the boys in the crowd were usually safe drivers but the boy who was driving this car was a new one sure I know about Roger green that's what makes it fun having a mom oh well since you're just going across town I guess it's all right oh no we're going to bartlettsville wow that's 25 miles away oh it's okay Mr and Mrs Burns will be there no Susie I don't think it will be all right you know that reputations have a way of rubbing off a boy with a reputation like Roger greens will give that reputation to everyone who's with him but Mom you gotta let me go that sort of thing could reflect on our whole family oh mom please let me go maybe Susie didn't think about that but isn't she old enough to decide who her friends should be and where she goes with them well mom put her foot down hard she wouldn't let Susie go I didn't know what to say but mom told Freddie that Susie wasn't going skating and why and that was that Freddy showed what a good guy he was he went back out and told the kids that Susie couldn't make it then he stayed behind and later Freddie did Justice to Susie's picnic lunch in our kitchen I guess Susie wasn't too unhappy but I don't think it's fair to keep her a baby all her life but a few things Susie has problems she's got it easy compared to me on Tuesday I came home late because I stopped to buy a wristwatch for my girl it was Ellen's birthday it was a pretty expensive watch but I was using my own money when I saw Dad coming home I wanted to show it to him I even told him how much it cost even though it was my own money dad thought I ought to return the watch and get something cheaper I didn't think so then he told me to return it why couldn't he have just given me advice then let me decide for myself and then on Thursday after supper I ran into more trouble dad was getting ready to paint the kitchen and he expected me to help I don't mind helping around the house but I just don't like painting I told Dad that if he thought he couldn't do it alone I'd pay for a professional painter out of my own money boy that really made him mad he accused me of never helping with anything of never being part of the family well that just isn't true I just don't like to paint shouldn't I have some right to decide what sort of work I do around the house oh I helped him all right but I didn't help him much on Friday I brought home some books on baseball dad knows I've been thinking about going into professional baseball After High School he doesn't exactly approve of it does he have any right to decide for me what I'm going to do with my life I think I should have something to say about that on Saturday the house really came down on my head and I think I kind of earned it but it sure wasn't all my fault I was on my way out to pick up Ellen for a movie date what do you think you'll be home or around 12 or one I thought you and I were getting up especially early tomorrow morning to go hunting sure I know but so what I'll still be in bed by 12 or 1. that's enough sleep for me wow if you expect me to go hunting with you tomorrow morning you better be in by 11 does he have the right to decide when I should come home at night maybe it's okay for him to decide for a young girl like Susie but not for me well I left my date that evening just happened to be over early because Ellen wasn't feeling well I could have been home when dad wanted me to but I took a long slow walk to that all-night restaurant just the other side of town I stayed there until nearly two o'clock just to show Dad when I finally got home I felt like Public Enemy Number One dad was waiting up for me and was he mad but I think he was really more worried than mad I wish I could have told him I was sorry but you just don't do things like that when you're all heated up boy dad really let me have it and I didn't have much to say either this morning I was up at 4 30 the way we'd planned but Dad wasn't so we didn't go hunting I sure cooked my own Goose on that one at breakfast I got the real cold shoulder the way nobody talked to me I felt like I had the bubonic plague and then you know what happened to Susie later on in the afternoon of course Susie was asking for trouble if she thought she was going to get by Mother and Dad she was wrong dad saw her and that was that she was wearing lipstick but why make such a fuss over it is it fair for Mom and Dad to decide exactly what Susie should or shouldn't wear or how she should look shouldn't Susie have something to say after all it's her funeral she's the one people will see not Mother and Dad well these are the sort of problems Susie and I are up against so I asked Mom and Dad if they'd listen to my letter because it was really written to them maybe the problem is that we're fighting over who's boss all the time instead of deciding who should be involved in making a decision who should decide what friends you have and where you go with them how you spend your own money what sort of work you should do around the house what you want to do when you're out of school what time you come in at night what you wear and how you look and lots of other questions you have to answer when you're growing up and taking on a lot of responsibilities you didn't have before maybe there are a few things mom and dad ought to decide for us I think there are more things they ought to decide with us but there are also some things I think that Susie and I ought to be allowed to decide for ourselves I wondered could the four of us work out a set of agreements we can live by I'll bet most families have problems like ours how do they solve them how do other families go about working out the problem of making decisions [Music]