full stopping: (verb) adding a full stop at the end of a sentence(.)16-year-old: mom what time do you want me back home?Me: What's everyone else's deadline?16 yo: dunno like 1:30?????Me: ok, then be back by 1.16 yo: ??????Me: huh?16 yo: why u getting angry??? :(Me: huh? I am not angry.16 yo: why are you full stopping me then!??? :(Me: Its correct English, that's why!16 yo: ohhhhhhhhhh!! Lol! I got worried… love youMe: Love you more.16 yo: MOM!!!!!!! Stop full stopping me!!!!!!!!!Can somebody please explain how the full stop turned on us?Why has the symbol formerly known as the most-important punctuation mark, gone renegade? While I was growing up -- and it isn't as long ago as you would think -- it was the simplest, punctuation to learn. I love the full stop.I remember ending my painstakingly written cursive sentences with a big, bold dot and colouring it in for extra flourish. I am nowhere near ready for this curtailer of sentences to be put to rest. For God's sake! I've lost marks on a correct answer for failing to add a full stop. This is anarchy.I am told, by the powers that be (my teens or Young Adults, as they prefer to be called today) that no one uses the full stop, "because then it makes it look like the person is angry with you and trying to cut you off". I try to wrap my head around this for a couple of days, still blundering my way through basic text-driven interactions with my YAs.I am not good with change. It is the mainstay of being obsessive compulsive, change is the enemy, it throws me off, it is the harbinger of chaos. But, if I want an all-access, back-stage pass to my children's lives I cannot let a punctuation mark ensure I get saddled with a 'Visiting hours from 5:00-7:00 only; we are closed on weekends' instead.I dredge my subconscious for ammo against the full stop, and begin to recollect being admonished by my own mother thus, "No means, no! You may not have another ice cream FULL STOP."EUREKA!Who could forget the immutable "full stop", albeit enunciated rather than written? It meant this is non negotiable, and man I hated that word! It was where all my good times went to die.I am euphoric. I have common cause with my angst-ridden, punctuation challenged kids, this is the enemy recycled. I am rolling with the times, I am sitting on the 'cool kids' table, I am reaching for that extra scoop of low fat, gluten free, chocolate mint ice cream, and I beg your pardon but, stop full stopping me.

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