By Cheryl Mattox Berry
Bad boys ain’t no good
Good boys ain’t no fun
Lord knows that I should
Run off with the right one
Lyrics from “Mr. Wrong” by Mary J. Blige featuring Drake
Why didn’t Mary J. Blige release this song when my daughter started dating? It would have made my life a lot simpler. Instead of preaching, all I would’ve had to do was pop in the CD.
I think a lot of girls are attracted to bad boys. I know I was in high school. There was something about his maturity, how he lived on the edge, didn’t care what people thought and knew a lot about everything. It was fun for a while, but then I saw that he didn’t have much respect for me either. He had girlfriends all over the city and was spiraling out of control with drugs.
That wasn’t a life I wanted to be part of, so we went our separate ways. I last saw him when I was a freshman in college. Friends say drugs got the best of him. He died a few years ago, a paranoid schizophrenic who roamed the streets in an overcoat in the middle of the summer. A sad ending for someone who had such a bright future.
In my daughter’s case, I didn’t want her dating a boy who didn’t have any plans for the future. She was going to college; he just kind of hung out wearing a wife beater, occasionally working on cars. I didn’t want his lack of ambition to smother hers. Nor was I sure that she had the wisdom to see that they were walking different paths. We had a talk about it, and I told her she needed to end the relationship. She did after a couple of weeks or so she told me.
I have yet to hear a happy ending to a story involving a relationship with a bad boy. It’s sheer romantic fantasy. Here’s the reality: Bad boys will make you lose sight of your goals. Bad boys will make you disobey your parents. Bad boys will make you break the law. Bad boys will drive you crazy. Bad boys will make you do bad things.When you see one coming, walk in the opposite direction for your own sake.