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Remember your teenage years? The hormones, the first tentative forays into the mysterious world of girls that you still haven’t really got the hang of? The knowledge that it didn’t matter what you wanted to do or whenever you wanted to do it there was no way of doing it? & the discovery that any attempt to do anything wondrously grown-up whether it was drink or sex related came with its’ own embarrassment potential? Of course you do, we all do as we now laugh & wince our way across the adult landscape that’s now somewhat less wondrous but at least free to be explored, well I bring news, if you’ve had kids then your teenage years are coming back. This is not to say that they’re coming back in a good way, just that they’re coming back & with a special twist in the tail to boot, you may think you suffered enough at the hands of your parents to be entitled to occupy their exalted position in your own home bit it’s not going to happen. We aren’t the same as our parents & far more to the point the teens today aren’t anything like the teens we were, we didn’t have expectations without limits & although we were just as selfish & lazy we never expected anyone to approve of it, you might have had it bad growing up but it’s worse when they do.

I’m only mad now because I haven’t been posting properly, I need to be able to jump on & off the PC when I choose & keep thinking that I can because it’s my PC, I’m wrong though, since my lovely daughters’ PC is broken mine has been kidnapped until her birthday in a few weeks. I was under the impression that we could share somehow but this is proving unpopular as it eats into her virtual social life which is bar the second coming the most important aspect of life as we know it. It’s not war in the classic sense but as a low key battle it runs & runs, there seems to be a requirement that no matter what happens nothing can be allowed to interfere with how things are meant to be. I get why teens rebel against the restraints of childhood & why it’s so easy to turn conversations into confrontations, to the teen everything is extreme, a problem has to be a crisis & anyone who isn’t saying yes is against them. These things pass eventually though, what’s different now is that where it used to be the teens who skulked about trying to live their lives beneath parental radar & the constant fear of discovery now it’s us. We’re the ones who have to be up early whilst they can stay up as long as they like since getting up is a random event, they see the need for their privacy whilst denying any need for adults to have any, & whilst they may be in favour of relationships any suggestion that the over 25s are results in gagging noises.

It’s never been easy to grow up no matter which generation you’re in, it’s not that easy being a parent either since there aren’t that many guidelines that work constantly, the balancing act usually ends up as a sort of scrum with ragged edges & no clear conclusions. This doesn’t help when you’re forced to hide from your own children in order to have a life in the adult world, I get on fine with my kids but the concept that being a teen awards some ultimate status is a bit much. It’s funny but it’s always at those moments that they consider themselves so grown up that they remind me of just how child like they are, it doesn’t help when I sound like a complete killjoy either but so long as that bothers all of us I’ll live. About half of being a parent is saying no to stuff, no-one likes being told it all that much & stroppy teens possibly most of all, the problem is that they don’t realize how much they ask for & that they forget all the times they heard yes. There are rumours of the teens who wash up & are always polite & helpful but I don’t believe it, much like the tales of parents who allow their kids to have a party every week it’s either a myth or else those kids are on something. Personally I’ll take the rubbish compromise & the battles for control of the PC, TV, phone, fridge etc, it’s the world I know & if I have to formulate a cover story in order to hide me & my lady from the glares of disapproval then that’s how it is, I’ll need a look-out next I swear.

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