Parenting Teens

No, no, no. It’s not “I love you.” Heck, it’s not even “You’re not fat!” No, these words are the best words in the world to every mother out there (and if you say they’re not, you’re either crazy, or lying. Or both.) What are those words? Easy. “Back To School!”

Ah yes, that is a sigh of relief and contentment you just heard! Today is that glorious day for me, the one where it doesn’t bother me AT ALL to get up at 6am, because I know that I’ll be headed back to bed in just a couple of house. This morning, I gleefully texted the Boy to wake him up at 6:30 - repeating every 5 minutes until he lumbered into the living room, grabbed his hat and glared at me from under the brim … just moments before he made sure that I appreciated his newly found fashion sense, of course. Then it was back to glaring.

Meanwhile, I giggled helplessly as the ringtone my daughter asked me to record for her alarm came blaring at top volume from behind her closed door. The ringtone? My yelling what I normally have to yell when she has been ignoring me for 45 minutes and she’s late: GET THE EFF UP, NOW! My vocal cords are completely safe this year thanks to that lovely little recording device. What really set off the giggling though was the sounds of her floundering to find her phone on the dresser and turn it off. I can get used to these kind of wake ups!

The girl didn’t seem nervous at all this morning as they headed down to have breakfast with Papa before school. (I know. I don’t even feed my kids breakfast on school days - haven’t for the past 10 years, starting the 11th. Long story - we’ll just say that I’m the luckiest mom alive, and yes, you can be jealous! It’s normal.) After their orientation night, she seems to have found her footing, and is ready to branch out on her own with only 5 or 10 of her closest friends at her side.

The boy wasn’t nervous either. Just glaring. But he totally owes me when he comes home - and I expect him to arrive here with a Diet Coke in hand. You see, I already received a call from his councilor. My boy doesn’t like math. He does really well in it, but when given the choice between Geometry and Personal Finance, he wanted the later, hands down. They didn’t give it to him, so he went to see about it being changed and thus the call. Was I ok with this change? The Personal Finance classes were pretty full already….

So I went to bat for him. I explained that I know he doesn’t have college in his sights, he’s a different plan, and I think that Personal Finance lessons would be VERY beneficial for him in the long run. I asked that she try to fit him in if she could, because he’ll never use Geometry again, while the PF class will come in handy when I kick his little butt out of my house 2.3 minutes after graduation. She said ok, then hung up.

(I think I scared her a little bit. That makes me happy.)

I still found myself writing down the information for the Middle School, automatically, even though both my older children are in High School. I think that I’m in denial - I’m not old enough for this kind of stuff to happen. I just graduated last month, for heavens sake (where last month = 20 years ago) so I couldn’t POSSIBLY be old enough to have not one, but TWO high-schoolers in my house!

I know I’ll just have to get used to it - can’t stop time, and all that. Just don’t remind me that my son being a junior means he’ll be graduating next year. I’m not ready to admit THAT much yet….