Teendom and Me

My eldest left on a school trip this morning. Too busy to say good-bye, but not too busy to call from school as she was missing something vital. At school, where we met and did our exchange she made a hasty exit. Nothing sentimental there. Oh parents of small children, enjoy them while they are still in your thrall. After all, babies are not time wasters. They are time enhancers. They make you feel special. They extend your sense of time going forward. You are now in the great chain of being. How magical is that? But teens? Well teens are what I like to call time wasters.
As virtually grown, they are still completely unable to put their dishes in the sink without being told (much less the dishwasher), seem to need endless reminders that yes, it's time to wake up once again and no, you can't have the credit card to take your friends out to lunch, to the movies, whatever. They require a kind of patience that I imagine saints possess (but not always by me) and the ability to say nothing when you are woefully annoyed by some transgression that somehow you and only you find offensive (according to them). So brace yourself, you parents of babies, toddlers and the grammar school set. Be prepared to know nothing and give more than most would advise as reasonable. If you all survive it will provide grist for the mill. Don't lose your sense of humor and stop looking at your watch. When you are a parent of a teen, time morphs in to something else entirely. Imagine becoming a concierge to a clientele who often have very few manners- if any at all.