Parenting TEENAGERS.

Parenting teenagers is hard. But I was lucky; just before our eldest hit puberty, my friend Shelagh gave me some advice. "They can be horrible," she said, "but don't take any of it personally". This has helped me weather what I thought were some pretty difficult times with our first daughter.

However our second daughter didn't just hit puberty - she beat the living crap out of it, knocked it unconscious, and dragged it into her teen-cave. She owned it. Last week was especially, er... eventful, and The Huz and I were close to cracking. Another friend, Sarah, recommended this book: "Get Out Of My Life, but first could you drive me and Cheryl to the mall?", by Anthony E. Wolf, Ph. D.

 I began to read...

Somewhere in the deep, dark, and dangerous recesses of her teen-cave, the 15 year old girl knows that we love and care for her enough to cry ourselves to sleep. And even buy a book.

And to her baby self, this is AWESOME.

I think that we're gonna make it. It's not easy; we must let our teens go and simultaneously set boundaries for them. However unpleasant, it is probably normal for them to behave badly, call us names and refuse to listen. We stay strong and do our best to follow Shelagh's advice. For as much as our teens complain about the boundaries, they do kind of appreciate them. Even if it only indicates that we love and care.

Oh and the book is great.

Parenting teens nightmares? Please share!

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Death of a child.

Tomorrow I will attend a memorial for the daughter of my friends, lost to leukemia.

The death of one's child is possibly the most profound loss that one might have to endure.
Does it make it any easier if the child is grown up? ...I think not.

I could barely draw this.

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YOU. Aaron the LumberJACK.

This little boy's name is Aaron. He just turned a cool six years old. Why is Aaron here? Because he's my biggest fan! Apparently he's driving his mom insane by watching this cartoon over and over again and singing the LumberJACK song at the top of his voice. Awwww... Kids, eh?

It's his fondest wish to be drawn as a LumberJACK so here he is: TADAA...!
UPDATE: Aaron's mom is getting this drawing as a tattoo!

Aaron's mom is the lovely @mommyamc AKA Angela. Is her little boy not awesome cuteness ready for bed?

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The LAST Snowman.

Last week it snowed. It was prolly one of the last snows of the winter, and it was lovely sticky snow, really perfect for making a snowman. I was in the kitchen making dinner and I watched the 14 year old girl through the window. This scene unfolded before me...

When she noticed that I was watching, she waved shyly. I thought, "that's so sweet; she's fourteen but she's still a child..." When I showed her this drawing, she denied being embarrassed, but a mother knows these things.

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DISC SCRATCH!

There is more to this story but I've removed it from the blog and here's why:

The LAST Snowman has been expanded (more drawings) and released as an ebook! Find out more about it here or just go straight to Amazon. Because stories! And hot chocolate!

Thanks for reading and stay tooned.

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