What in tarnations is this #BAE?

I’ve recently been able to hang out for several weeks with a bunch of teenagers, as I was the assistant director of the high school play they were doing and I loved it!!  These kids made me laugh, made me dance, made me sing and said strange things that this middle aged gal didn’t quite understand.

Did you know that these and many other teenage and college students are BAE? (Yep, me either.  I had no idea what this meant—then I asked them).  I think it’s the cool thing to say these days.  Cool?  Groovy?  Hip?  Well, whatever word they now use for that.  But I digress.  So what really is BAE?  The Urban Dictionary says that the word bae in Danish means poo or poop.  I’m not sure that you can believe everything the UD says but just throwing that out there. Well not actually throwing it, that would be gross. Just putting it out there for you to chew on.  Ugggg. That’s gross too, just forget it. 

So after asking around I’m catching on that when someone says that you are BAE, that it’s a good thing.  Don’t worry, they are NOT calling you poop, they are complimenting you. One of the teens might talk to me and just say, “You are so BAE.”  What they are meaning is that I am

            1.girlfriend/boyfriend (which is evident that I am not)

            2. Best friend (which I probably am not—but you never know)

            3. Someone you find cute or attractive (Oh, yes, that’s the one! Cute)

            4. Someone your "talking" to (this could be anyone.  Grandma you are BAE)

            5. Or the acronym of Before Anyone Else

            6. Baby,babe,boo,etc. (I don’t want a teenager calling me baby, babe or especially boo. Just sayin)

So if your teenager calls you BAE, don’t be so quick to run for the soap to wash their mouth out thinking they are calling you poop.  Quite the opposite.  They think you are pretty awesome. Seeing your name on Twitter with #BAE means you’ve really got it goin on.  

It’s important for us to listen to people and hear what they are really saying.  Make sure that you are not to quick to judge a teen when they talk to you thinking that the words that they are using are horrifying.  They may be trying to get to know you and find out who you are but only are able to do that in their language.  Yes my friends, teenage talk IS a different language.  Why do I love working with teens?  First of all, they keep me feeling young.  Secondly, I learn from them.  I observe how they see the world and adults and the topics of the day.  Finally, I see that if I can build into them just a little bit that they know for sure that even when their world may be rocked to the core that they know that there’s one person out there who will love and encourage them for who they are.  After all, I am BAE (or so they say).