They'll Choose My Nursing Home

This picture was labeled "Mad Bunny."

If you came over today from Swistle, welcome! Good to see you! I probably should have dusted, but here, let me move that stuff off the chair so you can sit down for a minute.

I am hearing you loud and clear, that your teenagers are driving you crazy. They are fighting with you and with each other. (The picture above is of pre-teen Boys but Boy#3 clearly was not loving his costume and most likely took that out on everyone.) (Okay, so the bunny suit was lame. Rite of passage, son.)

I am also laughing at the aliens who are sharing your living quarters--Mr.Irritating McAsinine! Mr. Slyly-Passively-Disobey! Mr. Oppositionally Defiant! Y'all are geniuses who must have presciently been acquainted with the Boys.

But if there is one take-away from my experience that I will repeat and repeat and repeat, it is that if you liked your darling children before they were teenagers, you will like them again some day, and that day will not be as far away as you fear. They will make you laugh, at them and at yourself and at the world around you. They will be okay with your creepy stalking of their Facebook pages (or will know how to block you from the information they'd rather not share) and know you are seeing this message from Boy#3 to Boy#1:

Last night, I was up real late working on homework. It came time to start another assignment, and I was faced with the decision of whether to do my homework or go to bed. I looked at the homework, and thought, "ehhh, I'm not feelin' it." Thanks, One, you've been a great influence on me.

Then you'll see all of his brothers like this status, and you'll smile.

One of your jobs as a parent is to remove yourself from the center of their lives without destroying the centrifugal force that holds them together. You want these children to like you when they grow up, but it's even more important that they like each other because they'll have each other a lot longer than they will have you. They will not only choose your nursing home, they'll discuss in minute detail your actions and your words, and they will be each other's outlet as they laugh ruefully over the latest weird thing you've done. 

When they don't have you, they will have each other, and that's why you don't smother Mr. Stomps-Up-The-Stairs with a pillow. Some day, his brothers will need him.