Teens say "Cool" for everything. Whether they agree or not. Whether parents have been trying to communicate some issues we want them to "let out", "spill it" when we're talking to them. At the end, all we get is "cool" from them. I wonder if cool is a common English error often said at the wrong time for the intended meaning. Or maybe, in my case, I am beginning to grab every chance of improving my communication skills -- not that my teens don't need it themselves. How I can enthuse them to expand their thoughts far beyond this breezy wave of conversation? Asking. Asking honest questions not because I want them to tell me what I expect them to say. But asking because I sincerely do not know a lot of teenage issues in their lives. Ask because I'm honestly interested in them-- about what they are thinking and feeling about certain issues in our family and in their world. So far, my teens are beginning to open up, discuss, and even tell me things that surprise me (and my husband). Other than that, they now say, "Mom's cool" to their older siblings and friends, instead. Phew! "Mom! Cool it!" isn't gonna happen. At least for quite a long while. I hope.
Cool has been in our (Filipino) vocabulary in the 1970s after the hippie era. From what I recall, that word to mean nifty or hip is a remnant of the flower power years. The "peace, man" phrase somehow changed to "cool, man, cool" and it was a popular phrase that I remember in high school (or college). I remember another word before the Cool word got into the limelight. Groovy was the word we were using to describe someone who is in fashion or chic or anything to signify modernity. And there was this comics character named Daddy Groovy to that effect who is an old man trying to act young with his long hair and modern attire.
Me, too. They could make some effort to engage themselves in the conversation we are trying to communicate. Whether they agree or not. Or ask us questions if they do not 'get' what we mean. I usually tell my sons, "I'm glad you think it's cool about what I said. Why do you think that is so?" Well, I say this is a lot of different ways. Haha!
I know exactly what you mean! Its also their way of telling me not worry because they have become so wise in their 19 years of life, and they know so much more than me, and my collection of wisdom, because I've only been around 54 years.
A friend of mine asked her daughter about the meaning of cool thinking that "cool, mommy" was translated to as "wonderful, mom" agreeing with something that it was to my friend's eye indeed a great thing to point at until one day her daughter replied "cool, mom" when she told her that her father passed away. On that day my friend understood that the real meaning of cool was "insane people by their side" or, in plain English, that she always turning a deaf ear to her.
My niece is guilty of saying "cool" a lot, even if she usually speaks Romanian. She's starting to get really annoying, and I blame those damned cartoons nowadays which are poorly translated. Seriously, Disney Channel in Romania is a joke: many English words that should've been translated are not, and vice-versa.
Oh wow! Thats one way to find out, I guess. I have forbidden my children to use it with me unless its used as an adjective. Like "My mom is the coolest mom in the world".