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Christi Diggs
on May 23 2013 - 06:00 AM
A drop of spin, a cup of deception and tsp. politics=Apathy
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Lindsay Metcalf
on May 22 2013 - 06:00 AM
When that tornado siren sounds, I'm in the basement
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mara williams
on May 21 2013 - 06:00 AM
Summer break has this mom on a house upkeep war path.
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Do you ever look at someone or something and just thank your lucky stars that all is right with the world? It is that feeling that you know you are exactly where you need to be and that it could always be worse. I have been observing my two teenagers at home and this is where I am. So lucky. My face beams because many years ago I wasn’t sure just how raising teenagers was going to turn out and I have been pleasantly surprised.
Being a teenager can be tough, like learning how to dance. You are trying to learn the steps, the order they are supposed to be in and how to coordinate them with the beat of the music. You stumble, have to get your bearings straight and try to jump back in. When you think you know what is going on, someone changes the steps and you feel like you are back to the beginning. Maybe you get a partner. Ouch! You step on their feet! Yikes, they step on yours. They might decide they need a better, more apt partner. You are stuck, sulking, trying to find your way back into the dance. The “Teen Tango”, a dance that is so hard to master because the rules change all of the time, the beat is strong and the crowd is roused on the sidelines demanding more, more and more!
Maybe this isn’t what my girls feel like, but I remember those days. The days that I wouldn’t dream of living over again, not even to save my life. I was awkward and never felt like I fit in. While trying to find my way, I made some very poor choices. I was a follower and definitely not chasing the right crowd. The saddest part of the whole deal was that I had a lot of potential but I really only cared about instant gratification. Fitting in. I tried to fill this hole inside and cared so deeply about what others thought because I was sure that they would fix that abyss inside.
I am so glad that the teenage years didn’t last forever and that around the time I hit my twenties I started caring less about what others thought and found some purpose in my life. At twenty-two I became a mom and my life really was centered around being a good one, which was a tall order because I was doing it solo. I wasn’t sure I was cut out for motherhood and I was positive that if all teenagers were as rotten as I had been, I would be in BIG trouble. In the next six years, I had three more kids. Three more opportunities for karma to come and kick my butt. Was I ever wrong!
What I see in my girls, while they do their adolescent dance, is something a little different from my story. I don’t see them following the crowd and they move to the beat of their own drums. My Grace is as talkative as can be and my Taylor, while she is somewhat shy, is not as hesitant as I am to open up and talk . Making good choices has come to the girls much easier than it did for me. Teenage revelry has not been avoided and they have all of the drama that comes with being in high school. They do the dance with much more grace than I ever could muster. I still have some years to go before I can breathe a great, big sigh of relief, but I look forward to laughing/crying/screaming/talking with them through their dances.
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