Pros and Cons and A Parent's True Job

June 2, 2010 by Rieshy




Pros of Teenaged Children:
  • Parent/child conversations more titillating than, "Yes, my coffee is hot.  Do not touch.  Your cup of milk is cold- feel the sides."
  • Once they get their driver's license they can go to the grocery for you.
  • They are strong enough to pressure-wash the house.
Cons of Teenaged Children:
  • Permanent shortage of hot shower water.
Buuuut, the biggest con is:
  • Teens posses extremely sensitive hypocrisy meters.  This can be... annoying.  
For instance, if I am sitting on the sofa reading and I tell the 3 year old to not pull out the lego box; yet he pulls out the lego box anyway, but I want to continue reading...  I (only rarely of course) scooch myself lower to pretend not to see.  This is often when one of my teens will notice and comment, "Mom, Jack did not obey you."

What I'm thinking is, "Well, duh.  I'm being lazy.  Leave me in peace, and throw me a bon-bon while re-filling my coffee."

What I want to say is, "I didn't say that he couldn't have them at all; I meant not in the 30 seconds after I first said it." Which of course would be a big, fat, lie.

The problem is- their hypocrisy meter would start beeping.  Every time it beeps it automatically debits your trust-worthiness account.  If you don't know about trust-worthiness accounts, you don't yet have teens.  Believe me, you need to keep your account in good standing.

Teen hypocrisy meters only work one-directionally.  This is the true job of parenthood: re-calibrating hypocrisy meters to work two ways and with a large measure of mercy. 


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Alexandra at Good Day Regular People  has a great blog, so I was flattered when she suggested that I submit a guest-post on a site where she sometimes guest-posts.

I'm excited/surprised to say that this Friday Four Perspectives is posting my submission.  

Take a gander at both sites, grab buttons if you like, and come by on Friday to keep my post company.



5 comments:

Melanie said...

Too true. They won't let me get away with anything : )

Unknown said...

I absolutely love this. We are living the dream, my friend. And we aren't being demanding with regards to coffee maintenance... we are passing on important life skills. :)

Trisha said...

Love this! Yes, my older ones call me on my "not-so-quick-to-react" reactions. They keep me on target. :)

Alexandra said...

Thanks for the shout out~

Yes, I love the writing at 4 P's. I think they have such a worthwhile website, and I visit there daily.
Always a great shift in my daily routine.

Congrats to you, can't wait to see you there!

Christy of The Travel Bags said...

That's hysterical! I'm literally laughing out loud, not just the polite "lol" kind either.

I'm so there!

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