Deep Thoughts About Ethan Turning 13

Small children disturb your sleep, big children your life.  

              ~Yiddish Proverb

It kills you to see them grow up.  But I guess it would kill you quicker if they didn't.  

             ~Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams

I have never really liked teenagers. I didn’t like them when I WAS one. And I was permanently scarred when I student taught high school to earn my secondary teaching certificate my last year of college (did I mention a fight broke out on our last day in the classroom?) It’s one of the reasons I went to graduate school, since I loved teaching history, I just hated the teenagers. Even today, when I see a group of teenagers walking down the street, or approaching me in a store, I tense up, like I have post-traumatic stress. I’ve poisoned my kids’ minds too, so much so that any time they see a group of young people they automatically say “Look at those punks!”  I served in the Young Women’s once at church, but it only lasted six weeks.  

So imagine my horror as the day approached that my first born, my baby, would be turning 13. Even just saying it out loud made me throw up a little bit in my mouth.  But we are trying to have a little fun with it. I like to tease him by singing the theme song to a puberty video that he watched at school -“Just Around the Corner.” It’s fun to see the amount of food he can put away, and he’s been fighting ordering off the kids menu for more than a year already. It’s nice to have a home-grown babysitter who only occasionally forgets to not abuse his brother and sister.  We already have a no slamming doors policy. He’s not exactly Mr. Talkative about his day, and I’m afraid the divulging of details will only get worse.  

As I complained to those around me about Ethan reaching this milestone, one of my friends shared this analogy about kids getting older. She said that teenage children are like astronauts who are orbiting the earth. For while they will go radio silent as they are making the journey, but they will make their way back around. Oh I hope so!  And I hope that I will learn to love teenagers, at least the ones that live in my house!