Open letter my son (and others in training for teenagerdom)
October 15, 2007
You seem to be under the impression that someone has died and left you boss of this house, me and your younger siblings. I regret to inform you that is not the case.
I realize that being an almost teenager is hard what with all that brooding, sulking and keeping track of all the ways that you have been wronged. As well as eating everything that is not nailed down. Oh and perfecting your eye rolling technique. That has be taking a lot of your time.
Now go brush your teeth and clean up your room. And tell your mother you love her, because you know you do despite what the permanent sneer on your face says.
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Haha, the joys of teenagers and almost-teenagers.
They sure do eat a lot, don’t they? I can’t even tell you how often one of my teenagers will come down at 2am ‘Mom, I am hungry!’
Karen
October 15th, 2007 at 11:08 pmMy twin girls are 15 - you have no idea what’s comin’, honey!!! They are the best birth control on the planet (however, I snuck 3 other kids in before they hit the eye-rolling snotty stage)
October 15th, 2007 at 11:24 pmyou have not yet begun to fight, chris. and just wait till that little princess of yours hits adolesence. boys? they’re EASY!
October 15th, 2007 at 11:43 pmPS Finish your Algebra homework and pick up the hugemansized shoes from the hallway - the odor is killing the cat.
when did my son move to your house?
October 15th, 2007 at 11:43 pmI am so with you on this one, sister.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:01 amMy 12.5 y/o son informed me a couple of weeks ago that they treat him like an adult at school. He wanted to know why I insist on treating him like a child. He wanted to know why I must know where he is going before he leaves. The injustice! And then I killed him.
Ok, I grounded him.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:18 amI hear you, Chris. The 12 year old here is acting the same way. If I hear “I don’t care” one more time, just one more time….
October 16th, 2007 at 12:19 amOMG, can I copy this and tape it to my 5th-grader’s forehead? It is like his life is sooooo hard. Ugh!
October 16th, 2007 at 12:36 amhmm…I shoulda remembered this, but thanks for the reminder regarding the attitudes of my newly adopted 12 year old. Guess it might not all be just-adopted-and-living-in-a-new-country ’stuff’.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:45 am(Yikes– I can’t decide if that is comforting or not)
Mary, mom to many
OK Chris, keep all this teenager talk to yourself. I don’t want to hear it. I’ve already lived through my own teenage years. I’m certainly not looking forward to being on the other side in a few years.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:07 amCan we just stop time now?
MamaLady, you get to relive every blessed moment of it. It isn’t fun. In our house, the girl has been far worse than the boy - the boy seems just not to want to have heard my voice talking at him for a year or so; but written communication was fine. My teenage girl, on the other hand, would prefer that I cease to exist.
So much for homeschooling helping to prevent those adolescent trials, Chris! (As I had so fervently believed before my daughter turned 13 - I was so innocent and stupid)
October 16th, 2007 at 6:24 amCan I print this out, laminate it and stick it in my sons wallet? That is great!!
October 16th, 2007 at 6:44 amSorry.
Been there, done that.
Still there.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:26 amUh, I’m sorry. I didn’t realize my 17 year old was giving pointers to your child. I shall have him punished immediately!! Or well, grounded anyhow. ~sigh~
I hate to say it but, it doesn’t get any easier.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:42 amoh you just read my son up and down !! hes going to be 13 in may..
October 16th, 2007 at 8:01 amDoh, I’m so not ready. Give me a house full of snot nosed toddlers in diapers again please.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:07 amMy 14yo son has been acting this way since he was 5. It is a testament to sheer willpower that he is still alive.
October 16th, 2007 at 8:08 am[...] Chris just wrote a letter to her almost-teenage son and I could have written the same letter to Thomas. [...]
October 16th, 2007 at 8:18 amI feel your pain, although my two 8 year olds must be over-achievers having started this behavior already. And their little brother (5) is taking copious notes. Sweet heaven help us all…
October 16th, 2007 at 8:24 amHoly crap where do you have the camera hidden? In my son’s bedroom, our living room, where where? I think you just perfectly described a night at our house. What is it that makes them think they are the boss of me, I mean my youngest son?
October 16th, 2007 at 8:27 amI’m LOVING life with teens… truly. Ok, so maybe I’m weird. LOL. But I love parenting teens far more than the 4-10 age group.
Oh - you have to check out my entry here; http://tinyurl.com/3dp94r
I think you’ll laugh! All us Mom’s have this in common!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:49 amuhh so what you are telling me is that even though I have a four year old doing all of the above, it is going to get worse? duuuuuuuuuuuuuude that just sucks
October 16th, 2007 at 9:01 amoh, and I’m struggling with my almost-2-year-old’s tantrums….I’m so not looking forward to her being a teenager.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:13 amCan I borrow that? Every.Single.Word? It’s perfect for my 9 year old.
October 16th, 2007 at 9:15 amMy kids are 14 and 11… The other day my 14 year old came home from H.S. band practice telling me that the band director had told one of the students that if he rolled his eyes one more time at him he would scoop them out with a dirty spoon… I am still laughing, she thought I would have sympathy or be outraged… nope. I love the band director!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:20 amMy son is about to turn 13 and I’m just not ready for all that!!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:45 amAMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 9:54 amWell said!
October 16th, 2007 at 10:33 amWhen I was a teenage my Mom called me SRT, and for YEARS I didn’t know what it meant… only recently I found that it stands for “Stinking Rotten Teenager” … now in my 30’s and seeing SRT’s around I totally get it
October 16th, 2007 at 11:15 amMy 7th grader still isn’t to this stage yet, thank God. Can I just freeze him now, while he’s still so sweet, and unfreeze him at, say, 20?
October 16th, 2007 at 11:42 amI could have written this letter to my SIX YEAR OLD with the way he’s been acting lately! If he’s like this at six, what does that say for the teen years?! Start sending wine now, I need to stock up!
October 16th, 2007 at 11:52 amTweens, ya gotta love’em.
October 16th, 2007 at 12:41 pmAmen, sister, amen.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:09 pmMy twelve year old is making me insane, and my reaction to his…twelveness reminds me of when he turned two. One day my agreeable, sweet child stood up in his high chair and when I told him to sit down or lunch was over, he fixed me with a contemptuous look and said, “You will NOT.”
What happened to my BABY?
The eye rolling is a skill that must be perfected.
October 16th, 2007 at 1:14 pmYou are SSSSOOOOOOOOOO right.
As much as I love mine, I don’t like her all the time. *sigh*
October 16th, 2007 at 1:16 pmI have 2 step-sons now 17 and 21 who entered my life when they were 5 and 9. Try going through the teenage years as a 2nd class parent. Mistress of my home, yet not really allowed to take an equal share of the decision-making. You get all the snarkiness of a teenaged boy, but you can’t threaten grounding because his mom won’t enforce it at her house where he is most of the time. Can’t take away the car because her parents gave it to him. Don’t get any say where he’s going to college even though you’re paying for half. Add in a husband who feels so guilty about his boys growing up in a broken home (though she divorced him) that he has trouble even telling them not to do something. UGH!
October 16th, 2007 at 1:53 pmAll I can add is the fact that as you get to be my age, you’ve totally forgotten those teenage days, and life is good! We raised two daughters and I swear they were no problem at all (that I can remember)!
October 16th, 2007 at 2:03 pmHeather-
October 16th, 2007 at 2:16 pmI feel you girl, on the bizarre shared parenting thing of the step-world. Sounds like you made it (are making it) through alive!
Chris - I’m sure you’ll come up with some certified way to handle rebellions. You’ve been dealing with insurgents for years!
I just noticed the aptness of my son’s birthdays - he turned two and will turn 13 on friday the 13th.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:19 pmYou have no idea what a relief it is to know it’s not just my kid.
Unfortunately, I have another one that will hit this stage within a year. Oy.
October 16th, 2007 at 2:26 pmThat sort of sounds like my 2 year old.
October 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pmTeenagers love you to treat them like a friend! Try to be their friend first before they open up and talk to you? read my coming blog comment on a teenager asking me why her parents always shout at her.Pamela
October 16th, 2007 at 3:13 pmMy five year old
Can drive me batty
Whining about his toys
Now it sounds like I
October 16th, 2007 at 3:36 pmHave so much to look forward to…
Parenthood? Oh the joys!
My 9 year old girl is acting very much like an almost teenager lately (she’s always been an early bloomer)…does that mean I have 10 more years of this?? Aahhhh! Or do I just get out of it earlier (I hope)!
October 16th, 2007 at 3:42 pmGiving you full credit, but framing this and putting it on my son’s wall in his room so he can look at it every day.
Shash
October 16th, 2007 at 4:20 pm[...] could have written this letter myself to Little Diva. What is it about teenagers that makes them think they are the boss of [...]
October 16th, 2007 at 4:36 pmand you have just begun. buckle your seat belt- it will be one helluva ride.
October 16th, 2007 at 4:56 pmI always thought it was just the girls who gave their mom a hard time. I was so, so wrong. Imagine my surprise to have my 11 year old son going thru mood swings. After a particularly tough day I stood there and asked my husband “Does he really thinks his balls are bigger then mine? I don’t think so.” Sorry for the crudeness but really, he was acting so obnoxious. My husband just laughs at me.
October 16th, 2007 at 6:15 pmP.S. Stop picking on your brother. He will someday be as big as you have recently become, and I believe I may have one day of blindness if he decides to even the score.
P.P.S. Just because you’re bigger than me? Does not mean you need to pick me up and move me out of your way. Walk. Around.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:04 pmNot just the eye rolling, but if I hear, “whatever” again anytime soon I may need to be restrained.
Just for one minute, imagine the look on my 18 yo when I told him he was grounded for the weekend. (For “borrowing” the EZ Pass thingy from my car that let’s you go through the toll booth. Imagine my surprise when I drove through and heard the alarms. Oh, yea.)Oh, the indignity of it all…he couldn’t believe I could do this now that he was 18! Live in my house, follow my rules. He spent the weekend contritely cleaning his room and doing yard work. Once it sunk in. It was almost worth the alarms going off!
PS I have to say, I really do love the teen years. They are so much more fun and so much less physical work than when they were younger.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:06 pmI’ve been trying to read 2 books to deal with my son- “Strong Mothers, Strong Sons” and whatever John Rosemond’s teen book is.
I hadn’t gotten through the first chapter of the first book when I realized I forgot to tell Finn about wet dreams when I gave him the sex talk and I had to do that and I’ve been WAY off track ever since.
*eye roll for me*
October 16th, 2007 at 7:34 pmUgh, these painful years. I don’t remember ever being as mouthy as my kids are…but I’m not asking my mom for her opinion.
October 16th, 2007 at 7:34 pmAs my Mom used to say…”If looks could kill, I’d be dead now!!!
October 16th, 2007 at 8:56 pmTeenagers…. enough said
October 16th, 2007 at 9:31 pmAs the mother of adult sons, I’m offering you a ray of hope.It seems when they reach about 22 or 23 they realize you aren’t dumber than a stump and you can actually carry on an intelligent conversation.
October 16th, 2007 at 11:26 pmI teach 7th grade, so I know exactly what you are talking about. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, it is often worse from the girls than the boys. But, today, in a “meet me in the hall after class talk” - only my second this year - I was told by a student that it was his turn to talk and my turn to listen. Ummm, not so much. He’ll be thinking about it tomorrow in silent lunch. Joy.
October 17th, 2007 at 12:46 amWow they can be crazy sometimes… sounds a lot like my 11 year old…
October 17th, 2007 at 9:22 amMine is 11 and I have taught him to repeat along with me the phrase, “The world doesn’t revolve around you.”
I’m pretty sure he doesn’t believe it, though.
October 17th, 2007 at 11:50 amRight there with you. Don’t forget the dramatic sighing.
October 17th, 2007 at 12:57 pmoh, I so hear you on the eye rolling thing! I started asking my daughter if she was looking for her brain when she did that.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:18 pmBeen there. Can I suggest that when you need to tell him off, climb up a step or 2 so that you are taller than him?! Oh, by the way, my son is now 30 and a delight. It was a long time coming.
October 19th, 2007 at 2:52 am[...] You can see how she is learning about things that fall into these areas. And Chris Jordan? Her open letter to her son was priceless. (And for the record, telling your teen that continual and repetitve rolling of his [...]
October 26th, 2007 at 10:12 amLOL
November 4th, 2007 at 9:50 pm[...] could have written this letter myself to Little Diva. What is it about teenagers that makes them think they are the boss of [...]
April 9th, 2008 at 5:27 pm