Seventeen-year-old J came home from his after school job and found me upstairs in my room, putting away laundry*. I asked him about school and work and then we talked about family plans for the weekend. He mentioned that his girlfriend wanted to know if he was busy tonight. I said, “I don’t know. Are you? All I need for you to do tonight is put away your laundry.” He said, “Okay, I’ll find out if she wants to hang out and…” His text notification went off and he looked at his phone. “Yep, she wants to hang out. So I guess I’m going to put away my laundry, make…
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Mother Knows Best
Let me preface my story by saying that of course I don’t enjoy when my children–or any of my loved ones, for that matter–get hurt. I just want that to be clear because I don’t want my readers to get the impression that my smug satisfaction with the events I am about to retell have anything to do with my child’s pain and suffering. Now, on with the story. I came home last night after teaching my spin class and went into the kitchen after passing through the family room and saying hello to J, who was sitting in the chair watching television. Jim was in the kitchen, and in…
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Inside The Life Of A Teenager
We don’t see a whole lot of J these days. Like many teenagers, his waking hours are full of commitments that keep him out of the house (and when he’s home, out of the family room), starting very early in the morning. On weekdays, he gets up around 5:30 a.m. to shower. He’s outside starting his car by 6:30. He picks up his best friend on his way to school. High school begins at 7:20. High school ends at 2:25. He drops his best friend off at home before heading straight for work. He works from about 3:00 until 5:30 each weekday (except for what he calls “No Work Wednesdays!”).…
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Transitions, Part Two
Yesterday I wrote about D’s return to college, and how different it feels this year compared to last. There are some changes where J is concerned, too. He has just begun his junior year in high school, which is really hard to believe in itself, so let’s all just pause for a moment to think about that. *pause* At the beginning of June, J got his first real job, working for an internet-based company. The owners of the company, a husband and wife, are members at our temple and gave him a chance for the summer, even though they were initially looking for a college student. J jumped right in…
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Personality Plus
The younger boy cracks me up. Usually. During the last couple of many months, he has been acting the part of a very normal teenager: spending lots of time in his room and not so much with us, attached to one of many technology items (sometimes more than one at at time) we have in the house. We’ve had to make major efforts to have actual discussions that delve deeper than: “How was your day?” “Good.” …and it’s not always easy to find that time, what with four of us running in different directions most of the time. When we can pin him down, though–like at the dinner table, for…