Raising teenagers is like nailing jello to a tree.

 So this teenager thing is kind of wearing on me. Not like a nice fitting dress either. Ya know the kind that makes you feel beautiful and unstoppable. More like an awkward bulky sweater that is itchy and uncomfortable. I'm not sure how to tackle these teenage years. I wish teenagers could just flash forward to the later years and see how things they do now effect their future. I try to be understanding and open. I tell him he can talk to me about everything. But come on, does anyone know a teenager that is 100 percent open with their parents??? There are still things that I did as a teenager that I as an adult wouldn't feel comfortable telling my parents. Mostly because I wouldn't want to disappoint them. Truth is I did plenty of things that disappointed them. Some they found out about, others they still don't know about.

 I have talked to my kids from a very young age about drugs, drinking, and sex. Some people may not agree with me on this. I actually drug test my teenager from time to time. Not because he is some druggie either. I test him because I have heard that drugs are very available in our school.  A lot of us think "Not my kid". Since I'm a professional TV watcher. I have watched a lot of shit TV and a lot of informative TV. Lots of talk shows on kids and drugs. Every time I watched the parents had no idea their kids were in trouble. They were athletes and straight A students. It's not because they are bad parents. No parent wants to see their kid go down that road. Kids are master manipulators. We as parents have to be one step ahead while we can. This is one thing I can't ignore. I have seen first hand how drugs can tear a family apart. You feel helpless. I believe no one wants to be an addict either. It is a disease. I bet any addict would look back on their life and change it if they could. Drugs weren't a big thing in my high school. I actually only heard of a few people that did them. I saw a few people smoke pot in high school. I never saw anyone do hard drugs. It's different now. We have to do everything we can to stop it.

I don't even do it because I don't trust him. What I don't trust at his age is peer pressure. I think we forget how hard peer pressure is at that age. High school is the years where a lot of us are not confident enough in ourselves to be the one who says "NO". We don't want to look stupid or be the chicken shit. We also think we are invincible at this age.  Teenagers only see the the now....at least most of them. I don't think most of them see what you do now can affect not only who you become but what happens in your future. Most teenagers have not yet experienced a lot of bad stuff. They have not had friends that overdosed or became addicts.  If anything by drug testing him I have given him a way out from peer pressure. He can say..."I can't my parents test me and my mom would go bat shit crazy if I test positive". Still I wonder if I'm doing the right thing.  Am I over the top????? This is a sticky subject for sure. Some people may agree with me and others think I'm crazy.

It's funny because I have talked to them from such a young age about sticky stuff. They have always told me "I will never do any of that stuff". When they were young I thought..."Damn, I'm totally ahead of the game" "I got this".  But when they get older they start to become more adventurous. I'm lucky because I have good hearted kids for the most part. They have not done anything life shattering yet. But they do make mistakes. What I forget is I'm not raising perfect kids either, as much as I hoped I was.  I'm here to pick up the pieces and hopefully guide them to be successful, respectable, adults. I have to remember we learn from mistakes.

I think it's really hard to raise kids now. There is way too much information available to them. They know too much and see too much from a young age. Even if we shelter them, there are friends that tell them stuff or show them something. We can't be there all the time. I will never forget when I was at the park in about 5th grade. My friends and I were on those spring animals. I was just bouncing back and forth on my animal. Minding my own business, happy not knowing adult things. My friend told me about sex. I was shocked. I thought about my grandma first. She was like the women in the shoe. She had lots of kids. I couldn't believe she had done that sex thing so many times. It really bothered me. I thought she only did that for kids. Why else would someone do that?????? It truly is something I will never forget and didn't want to know then. I really just wanted to play on that spring animal and think of my Grandma making mac and cheese not whoopie.

Now we are dealing with YouTube, Facebook, instagram, twitter, phones, and snap chat. My head spins thinking about it. So kids can YouTube anything. I have researched. Pull up any drug on there. It tells you how to not only make it but how enjoyable it is.  Not to mention all the jackass dangerous stunts kids see on there.They want to be those jackasses. Having no idea the dangers of the stunts. They make them look fun and cool. Most of those stunts can kill you.  Facebook, jeez...."hey look at me" "look at what you weren't invited to" "Let me insult you and your pictures". "Look at me half naked" "Look at my muscles" "look at what I'm doing". "Look where I am" "look what I have". Instagram...another "hey look at me" thing. Phones.....damn...no one talks it's all text.  Texting makes you be able to say things you would never say to a persons face. It's not great, even something simple can be taken the wrong way. Hello we are raising kids who don't talk in person. That's a problem.  Twitter...do people really care what you have to tweet about???? Or do they just judge and talk about you.  Are our kids mature enough to handle all this judgment???? I struggle with it as an adult. Then there is a new one. "Snap chat" this it an app. where a picture flashes for a few minutes to someone and then disappears. Now think about this! What good can come of this kind of thing for teenagers?? So like I said, It's really hard to parent now. With all this to keep up with. Trying to help them make good decisions. Look at TV and music now. TV shows make teen sex normal, affairs normal, lying and cheating normal. There is a lot to overcome for us parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On a brighter note I had a funny "WTF"parenting moment this weekend. Pig Pen picked out a cake at the store. While I was watching TV I saw him walk by with the cake. A few minutes later I hear a blow dryer. I go in to see what he's doing. He is blow drying the cake. I ask..."What the hell are you doing??". He says..."It's frozen, I'm trying to thaw it out".