Hamburg bound.
Mar 19th, 2008 by B.
Tomorrow late-afternoon we leave for Hamburg. I haven’t packed yet. All our clothes are dirty, and Robyn just stormed out of the room after yelling that if we loved her we’d never make her go on ’stupid’ vacations again. Apparently her life is, like, nothing when she’s not with her friends.
Jesus.
Please, someone with a grown daughter tell me this phase ends at fifteen & a half, because I’m not sure I can make it to her 18th birthday without wanting to wring her angsty little neck.
Then there’s the weather. Today I watched out my window as it rained, sleeted, snowed like crazy, was menacing and dark before turning sunny, and then pattern repeated again. I’m just waiting for frogs to fall from the sky… this is some seriously end-of-days, armageddon shit.
But, come what may, we’re leaving tomorrow. And Robbie is too, despite her dire warning that she’ll ‘make us miserable’ if we force her to go. Two can play at that game…
On this day..
- King Dork & more(k) - 2008
- A touch of gray. - 2007
We had the sleet followed by gorgeous sun and then strong snow. As soo as I finish watching the last episode of Lost I will put up photos;-)
according to my mom… that horrible phase does not end until she is grown and has children of her own… but if it is any consolation, once the nightmare that was me did end and i grew up i can tell you that nobody apart from my children is deeper in my heart than my mommy.
so here’s hoping you both live through it to laugh about it all one day.
Somewhere between “we’ll go there when the kids are old enough to appreciate it” and “I won’t travel with that monster again” is an unannounced three-week window of opportunity.
ian in hamburg’s last blog post..On flags and faking it: I actually came in second?
I think I got past that around… age… 19 or 20? Good luck!
Maria’s last blog post..Our baby is 15 months old!!!
I remember well my daughter’s teenage years, and let me just say, you might want to take up drinking. OK, so I’m only kidding (mostly anyway). I don’t know what it is about teenage girls, but they are enough to drive anyone insane at times. I’m just glad my daughter is grown up now, but even so, she still has her moments.
As for two playing that game, fair warning. . .unless you are some kind of freak of nature. . .your daughter WILL win. I hate to say it, but it’s true. Can you remember back when you were her age? I bet you were just as head strong and defiant, at least I know I was. From the moment my parents ordered me to stop seeing a certain guy (at age 16) I was determined to see him, no matter what! That drove me right into his arms and into a marriage by age 20–way too young! So, teenage girls know that their parents 1) really have no control over them, 2) are scared shitless that they will run away with the first guy that comes along, and 3) end of pregnant, uneducated, and miserable. Any hint of authoritarianism will only up the ante ‘cuz it’s like waving a red flag in front of a bull.
I failed miserably at understanding these concepts as a parent. My daughter moved in with her boyfriend when she was 18, thumbed her nose at admission to some pretty prestigious universities–foregoing university completely (even though she is highly gifted)–and settled for a life that could have been so much more. Now that she’s in her mid-30s, we can occasionally talk about those days. We even joke about what kind of tattoos she would have gotten back in the day. Fortunately, at that time, blue, pink, or orange hair was the weapon of choice, but at least that could be re-dyed or would just grow out. Tattoos are more permanent.
Even though I may not have done everything right as a parent, I’m glad to say that my daughter and I love each other very much and can call each other friend.
So, the good news is that it is possible to survive those teenage years (and early 20s, too!) and to come out relatively unscathed. Keeping the line of communication open is difficult, but not impossible.
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Oy Vey! Well, while I hope you go & have a good time, good luck w/ Robyn B…Now that I’m back from Australia (omg, it went by SO fast!), I’m wishing I could go back again immediately..But I could sure as hell do without having to go thru LAX again - I’d sooner stick bamboo shoots under my nails, they suck that bad! Lol…
Best of luck & have a great time
I remember saying something like that to my parents, although I wish that I was dragged around Europe, instead of Minnesota/Wisconsin, when I was a teen!
Emily’s last blog post..moving forward (again)
Since I am single and don’t even parent so much as a goldfish, I feel TOTALLY qualified to suggest: ignore all of it! You’re far too busy and important to induldge teeny drama. I have done this sort of experiment before (not naming any family members here, but lets just say I was once in this persons uterus) where I ignore all negative behavior and only reward the positive and it very slowly works. And, if it’s any consolation, I could be a complete bear to my Mom back in the day…but then, the night before I left for college, who did I wake up crying at 1am because I was SCARED TO DEATH? My Mom. She may not like you all the time, but she’ll never stop loving and needing you. True. Swear.
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Well it’s good to know it’s not just my kid… we ended up having a fairly decent time and even got away with teasing Robbie about it. I’m still not used to the razor’s edge mood swings, but I guess I’d better get that way.
Well, my eldest former teen just turned 20 … [excuse me while I run screaming from the room in search of botox and hot younger men] … and she actually calls me nearly every day from college, and comes home on every break from school.
My current teenaged daughter is 18, and although she still is all about her friends to the point where you’d think they were the ones sporting the stretchmarks, she’s actually turned out to be pretty responsible and seems ot be on a good path, with college coming this fall. Now, she was my hellion, born with a temper, and strong willed … whooeeee, you don’t even want to know. We went around on many many occasions. But somehow she calmed her ass down and is doing well.
And now, just when I was getting good at teenage girls, I’ve got figure out teenaged boys. Crap.
Maybe the heavy drinking thing is something we should look into after all…
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