Time Flies When You're Having Fun

What is worse than a 14 year old boy?

A 14 year old girl?

I don't know, maybe. According to Ian, everything is stupid or boring. School, classes, the neighbor next door with the cat with the collar, dinner, soccer practice and girls.

Teachers are labeled psycho. I think this is because in his health class they are studying mental illness, so now since Ian is an expert on mental illness, each one of his teachers has some sort of mental illness. His Biology teacher is Bi-Polar. His English teacher is Psycho. His Health teacher is schizophrenic. I haven't the heart to tell him that if they were indeed any of these diagnoses, they probably would have killed him or the entire class by now.(I really didn't wish to burst Ian's bubble about all his psycho teachers and tell him that they all had very nice things to say about him. Call me cruel but I like to remember these comments when I feel psycho about Ian.)

It's dumb that he has to keep a notebook. It's dumb that he has to use a pen. It's dumb that he has to write  BOTH of his names at the top of ALL  of the papers he turns in. It's dumb that he can't be late to class. It's really dumb that I went to Open House and, sin of all sins, talked to ALL of his teachers. It's dumb that Redmond has a curfew and it's really, really dumb that I make him come home before the curfew.

He insists that the curfew in Redmond is 1:00 am. I laughed when he told me this...if a curfew is 1:00 am, what's the point of a curfew? He said he talked to a policeman. I then showed him in the paper (Redmond is delightful in that it publishes the police reports..what a kick. Granby used to and it was the only good writing and entertainment that that paper offered) and pointed out where three youths were arrested at 10:36 for breaking curfew. He insists that it's a typo and should read 1:36.

 I remember Jordan at this age and how  he too drove me crazy and only spoke in monosyllables or grunts. I remember one time telling Jordan that "No, you cannot drive to Denver in a blizzard at 11:00 pm to visit friends I don't even know" and him telling me that I had ruined his life.

Here's my theory on raising teens.

If they think you're psycho and they hate you and they slam their bedroom doors a lot and you're ruining their life, you're doing a good job. No, you're doing a great job.