It gives me a lot of pleasure to look at the 1974 picture I posted yesterday showing my grandfather looking so healthy and happy. In that picture, I rather look like him, something nobody has ever accused me of before.
Sometimes I find myself in the position of giving advice to parents, often with teenage kids. I guess over the years (especially my 10 year stint in parent group) has radicalized me a bit about this 'he's just a teenager' thing. Granted, you can always see things more clearly in somebody else's family rather than your own.
But I have been around the block a time or two. I have directly dealt with (and this doesn't include things I've seen serving on parent group teams)
. Drug use (including alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, meth)
. School dropout, GED
. Outpatient and inpatient drug treatment
. Rec sports (softball, soccer, basketball)
. High school sports (softball, soccer, basketball, track, cross country, track, water polo
. Select sports (soccer, softball)
. College athletic recruiting (including official visits, unofficial visits, verbal commitment and letter of intent)
. College admissions (including University of Oregon, University of Washington, Washington State University) plus paying for them
. Marching band
. School newspaper
. Tattoo coffeehouse
. Black student union activities
. Highland dancing (including captain)
. Girl scouts (including silver award, gold award, CIT, working at girl scout camps, mom'n me weekends, selling cookies, cookie parent)
. Special education (including IEP)
. Juvenile justice including diversion hearing, runaway, family assessment, frs counseling, paraphenalia)
. Multi-racial family
. Cross-cultural social issues
. Becoming a grandparent while kids are teens
. Adoption issues (including search and multiple (triplet))
and I'm sure there is more if I think about it....
But I'm still here and kicking
Picture lifted from a blog about a parent being tired, don't know the provenance
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