Today's misadventure involves birthdays! Thats right folks, the wonder kids have made it to another year of life(surprisingly!). Mr. Man is now 9 years old and Little Miss is in her first year of the wonderful world of being a teen! Okay so wonderful is not the word I would use to describe this first week. You will understand more as you read on...
I have come to the conclusion that there is a secret punishment that God bestowed upon humans when Adam and Eve each took a bite of the forbidden fruit. That punishment is what we know as the teenage years. I am not a versed in the bible as some that I know but I have to wonder if Adam and Eve's sons Cain and Abel were teenagers when the whole tragedy of one killing the other transpired. It was having to stop my own teen from nearly killing her brother that made me first wonder this. Don't be alarmed, she wasn't literally trying to kill him. He just happened to glance over her shoulder to see what she was watching on youtube that had her laughing so hard. Her response to that was to slam her head back so that she head butted him in the chin, pinch his arm, and run over his foot with the computer desk chair. Maybe she was trying to kill him... okay moving along, nothing more to read on this subject.
Getting back to the punishment known as teenagers, I read somewhere that when I child hits the teenage years, their sleeping habits revert back to that of an infant and their behavior reverts back to that of a toddler. The sleeping habits I can believe but the behavior, I think the researcher got that part wrong. What he meant to say what it's us parents whose behavior reverts back to that of a toddler when dealing with our teens! So far I have had to deal with Little Miss acting like it was a personal affront to expect her to put down the book she was reading and get up off her rear end to help me look for something Cowboy bought for her bike. I have also had to deal with her walking around in a foul mood as if something is bothering her yet when asked she says she is fine, only to get mad because something was wrong and we didn't draw it out of her. She fails to remember we tried the draw it out approach only to run screaming from the room! All of these behaviors have had me stomping away to my room in the manner in which a toddler would stomp away and at one point I wanted to lay on the ground and have a good old fashioned kicking and flailing temper tantrum!
My good friend/neighbor also has a teen(she had been dealing with the teen years 8 months longer than I have) and she told me she just reminds herself that this too shall pass. I see where she is coming from however there are some moments where I wish "this too" would pass a just a little faster! Until that day comes, if you don't hear from me in a while know that I am safe in my own little corner, in my own little chair, in a nice padded room void of all teenagers!
