Thinking Outloud

I have learned quite a bit this past week when it comes to raising teenagers.  I have discovered that some times it is harder to parent a teenager than it is to raise two younger children.  With the two younger ones, they know your the boss and they will listen to you.  The teenager on the other hand is a different story as they think they know more than you and you get to hear all about the fact that they are eighteen and know what they are doing.  My oldest is eighteen and this is what he is going through right now.  He moved out on to his own just because “he is 18 and is old enough to be on his own”.  He didn’t really consider all there is to living on your own, but is so stubborn that he won’t admit that he is wrong.  It’s a whole lot easier to tell the younger children that they are wrong then to try to tell him.  So, I just wait and watch and hope he learns from his mistakes along the way.  I am more than happy to help him out, but he has to make the first move to ask for this help.  So, give me four younger children over a teenager and I will tell you life would be a lot easier.

Well, the other day my youngest son was sent home from school because he had a mysterious bump on his his.  He couldn’t remember anything happening to him and the staff at the school question him alot about it.  When I got him home, I questioned him as well and got the same answer out of him that the staff at the school did.  He had no idea how he got it.  So, I chalked it up to one of life’s little mysteries and figured we would never find out what happened.  Well, we now know what happened to my son.  The next morning when he woke up, the bump was gone and in it’s place was two little bug bites.  He was bitten by something and he completely swelled up.  This is why he couldn’t remember anything happening to him.  Because nothing did except for a couple of bugs chewing at his head.  So, at least now we know the answer to this mysterious situation and I now know to keep an eye on any bug bites he may get over the summer.

Early this morning I got a phone call from the children’s school.  It was quite early and the kids hadn’t even been in class for an hour.  This phone call was from my youngest son’s teacher.  Apparently he showed up at school this morning with a huge bump on his head.  When they questioned him about it, he couldn’t remember how he got it.  I think he remembers, he just didn’t want to get himself or someone else in trouble.  He still won’t tell me how it happened.  When I was speaking to the teacher I told her he didn’t have it when I dropped him off at the bus stop.  So, it had to have occured on the bus, at the bus stop, or first thing in the morning at the playground.  But, I was so touched that they cared so much for his well being that the principal, the vice principal and his teacher all got involved.  You don’t find many people who care that much about a student for all of the faculty to get involved.  As I said, he still won’t tell me what happened.  He is fine.  So, I guess this will have to go down in life as one of life’s mysteries.