Adolescence Already?

I have always heard about the problems faced by parents when their children become teenagers. However, I always thought I wouldn't have to deal with it because I assumed that by the time the kid became a teenager, I would be senile and Keri would have to take care of the both of us. Boy was I wrong! It all started with homework. Now I dread getting out the homework and beginning the confrontation. Case in point, Ian decided that, during a football game the object was to "takl" the guy with the football. No amount of reasoning could convince him otherwise. That leaves me with the dreaded parent statement "because I said so". He changed it and then got it right on the assignment but by that time he has dug his heels in about something equally confrontational, like "90" is 899 rounded to the nearest hundred. Once again I'm reminded of why God intended young people to have children. People trying to console me always say that it will get better, then they pause and add "after adolescence". All the other parents of nine year olds always tell me how well behaved Ian is. If that's the case, we should remember all of those parents in our prayers. Of course, I don't mention any of this to Kim and Willie. They will discover it soon enough. I remembered this photo from the beach. He will kill me when he realizes that I posted it. Meanwhile, I'm going out to the front yard and change my sign again. It usually says "FREE TO A GOOD HOME" but I'm going to scratch out the "GOOD".


Most of my students are great. I'm enjoying teaching the early CSD classes for a change. For the past several years I have encountered the students after they are Juniors and are already afraid of me. It's hard to get to know most of them that way. We have a great group coming in.

By the way, Mike bought a popcorn machine for the department. Sharon has always obtained one through ARA (something the rest of us could not do) but this semester they were going to charge her almost $200 for 87 students. Mike decided that at that rate we could find uses for it and we are already making plans. We are going to have popcorn for everything. As the reigning social chairman,Beckie needs to be thinking of ways to entertain using popcorn! I'm sure she will come through for us all.