Raising Teenagers is Hard

For the past week, and for most of this week--I've become a mother of a very fine 15-year-old. Okay, not a mother, not even a babysitter really...

But, I am housesitting for friends of mine, and they do have a 15-year-old daughter...but I'm not allowed to say I'm "babysitting" because she kicks me and gets defensive.

So. I'm caretaking everything that's important to my friends, which includes a house, a daughter, two dogs, two vehicles, a boat, and a mailbox.

All of this to say--it's really difficult to raise teenagers. I mean, they're never home, or I'm never home, or when we are home, she's on the phone or I'm on the phone. Meaning, there's about five minutes for conversation every day, and it's usually in the car as I'm taking her to one place or another. So. In six months when she gets her license, we won't even have that five minutes.

Obviously, this is not news to 90% of the population, but it is news to me...and it illustrates well that taking a student out for coffee for an hour's worth of solid conversation is not time wasted--because--well--maybe it's the only solid conversation the student has had all week.

If I learn anything else insightful about the life of a teenager during my week as a mom, I'll let you know.