Mother Car Mom Rules Uncool Parents Life Unkind

In the news in early 2008 was a story of a mother who sold her son's car after he didn't follow her rules. This is what happened:

A mother bought her 18-year-old son a car and told him that she had two simple rules: 1) no "booze" (informal word for alcohol) in the car and 2) keep the car locked. One day, the mother decides to check to see if her son had followed her rules. She finds that the car is unlocked and there is a bottle of alcohol under the front seat. He was "busted" (discovered doing something bad)!

What did she do? She placed the following "classified ad" (advertisement) in the Des Moines Register, a major newspaper in the State of Iowa where they live:

OLDS 1999 Intrigue (the make and model of the car). Totally "uncool" parents who "obviously" don't love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before "snoopy" mom who needs "to get a life" found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call "meanest" mom on the planet.

"uncool" = not nice; not sympathetic

"obviously" = clearly

"snoopy" = looking around secretly to find information

"to get a life" = to not worry about unimportant things

"mean/meanest" = unkind/the most unkind

Many people thought this ad was very funny because the mother used some of the common words and phrases angry teenagers might use. Someone who doesn't share a teenager's views is "uncool" and someone who "pries" (tries to find out other people's private information) is a "snoop" or is "snoopy." A teenager might tell you "to get a life" and to stop bother them. If parents force a teenager to do something they don't like, they might call those parents "mean."

The ad got a lot of attention in the media. Many people said that this mother was not only "clever" (smart and funny) to use her son's words and point of view in the ad, but that she was right "to enforce" (to force someone to follow) her rules.