"The Teenager"

It was nice having the day off yesterday...BUT...and I will repeat loud and clear....BUT...my oldest son, I'll simply refer to as 'The Teenager", drove me absolutely nuts!

Let's back up about 13 years ago...I vividly remember standing over his crib with my mother, in the wee hours of the morning, only a few days after giving birth to him, staring in awe at the tiny human being, a part of me, I was his only source of nutrition, totally dependent on me, tears in my eyes, and saying, "I cannot imagine ever getting angry with him..."

Fast forward almost 13 years...I am completely sure that my mother was laughing under her breath that night because she had been there and done that. She knew I would face trials and tribulations with Austin. She knew there would be days where I would be willing to sell him to the lowest bidder, or ingeniously set him out in front of the house with a sign that says "Free to a good home", but instead, she chose to keep silent, let me enjoy the innocence of a new mother, appreciate those tender moments between mother and child.

Yesterday was NOT one of those days full of tender moments...It started with finding him outside in shorts, banging on the gutters so the ice would fly out the bottom...right outside the neighbor's windows...The neighbors who were probably still asleep. From that point on, my patience level was short, and his activity level and attitude level rapidly increased. Can you imagine if children were born as teenagers, and we never had all those precious years leading up to that point? My mother told me that the way she made it through our teenage years was by remembering Proverbs 22:6 --- "Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it." If it weren't for this, I promise you he would have ended up on eBay or Craig's List yesterday!