Trials of parenting

Most of you know I am a mother of three. But, if I should count my husband, I guess that would make four. And I would remiss to exclude him when sometimes he acts no different than the children!

Oh I know he reads this. And he will probably get a good laugh but I find the need to tell this mornings story.

Today I walked into the spare bathroom that my husband just left and found on the floor about 5 folded up tissues surrounding the trash can. Now Todd is the only one in the house that folds his tissues. I don't understand the habit. Most just crumble and toss. But Todd folds the tissues in 1/2 to blow and then continues to fold them in a neat little square before tossing. So the evidence is in the tissue alone.

I notice them all on the floor and go out and tell my 40 something 'child wanna be' to pick up his tissues before he leaves for work. And his comment?

"But they aren't mine!"

I am not sure which I find more disturbing. The fact that they obviously are and he threw them on the floor, only to deny it. Or the fact that he saw them, his or not, and still did not pick them up because.........."But they aren't mine!"

Seriously!

I have no further comment on this story! But you may conclude its ending yourself!

And then there is my lovely teenage dramas. Who needs soap operas when you have teenagers!

My son is upset because his friend in school shows 'affection' to his girlfriend in the form of a hug in passing. So he is currently dealing with friendship vs. 1st love and all the lovely and exciting things it entails. The suspense. The drama. The possession. The ' I am going to tear him up' whole story line. And so he got the learn to control your emotions and the no girl is worth fighting over lecture this morning. What I told him was that if it upset her, she should go to the office and complain about his friends 'public show of affection' and surely that will get rid of him with a nice old detention!

How I know this to be a fact is because Megan has detention for the exact thing! Yes, my lovely 12 year old daughter is going to detention for public displays of affection! Now I had to ask the teacher emailing me what exactly was his definition of 'public displays of affection' because I know that the schools definition and mine are somewhat different in the OMG-I-am-going-to-kill-my-child factor!

Holding hands on the way to class.........not such an OMG!
Swapping spit in the halls or placing hands on private zones............totally an I am going to kill my child moment!

Well she was holding hands and hugging. Not my best OMG moment if you ask me! Normally it would have gotten a shrug. But this conversation was not just about one boy. Three names were brought into the text by the time we were done talking. NOT that she was doing anything with three boys. But I thought she liked one boy. She was hugging this other boy. But then last night another boy called to ask her out. NOT cool with mom! She is 12. And the boy who she got in trouble for I do not feel is a good boy next door kinda guy. The teacher confirmed that with me! He had already had a talk with her about staying away from him!

Ok I was 12 once. I was making eyes at boys at that age too. BUT not with three. Not with a troublesome kid. And it was contained to the school hallway. A little kiss or hand hold in passing between bell rings. A phone call on the house line that mom stood just out of ear shot and then told you 20 min later it was time to get off! A note with hearts on it, passed at lunchtime.

Not meeting someone at a friends house (yes Megan......I know about it!). Or the unsupervised world of texting, emails and IMs (Yes Megan......I know about it!) This all opens doors that a 12 year old should not always be experiencing. At least not MY 12 year old.

So tonight I officially get to become the worst mom in the world as we have our little chat about boys, cells and public shows of affection at 12 years old. I am sure one day she will look back on it and thank me............

It might take till she has a 12 year old herself but it will come. It WILL come!