Mom blog: Because I Said So! I’m a “parenting teens” course graduate

On Tuesday I promised I would write about the Parenting Teens course/workshop series I have been taking since November. When I saw the sheet advertising it: HELP! I Have Teens!, I thought, Hey, maybe this is just what I need. I do nothing in the evenings but laundry, chauffer, cook, clean, supervise homework and fights, grocery shop and work, why shouldn’t I take a course too? And forget belly dancing or yoga, I write the Mom Blog, so so I’ll give my all for research!

I can’t spill everything I learned there, because it’s not what you learn, it’s how you put it into practice. I will now give an example of parenting I’m proud of, and that was a direct result of the course. And as other instances of teen conflict, limit-setting and poor communication come up, I’ll post them right here, in the Mom Blog.

After working for a full day, I raced home, picked up Luka from the babysitter, picked up Tessa from her studio, stopped to buy a few groceries and raced home to cook dinner. On the way to the house, Graydon called me to ask me if he had to air out the house, how should he do it. Why would you need to air out the house, son? Because he and a friend (one I really like) had a little good-natured “fight.” One that involved aerosol shaving foam, a knock ‘em dead flying insect spray and a couple of jugs of baby powder. He said it was kinda choking in the house, and should he open which windows. I didn’t yell, I breathed deeply and said to open all the windows. Upon entering the house we were assailed by the most choking fumes/clouds/smells I’ve ever experienced, save an electrical fire and a pot of potatoes boiled dry for a few hours. It was bad. I didn’t yell, lay blame, nothing. I made dinner then agreed to go to Winners to escape the air quality.

Not a word was said by me when we got home.

This morning, I called Graydon from the car and asked if he expected that same friend to come over tonight. He said, with no small amount of suspicion in his voice, “Yeah? Why?”

I told him there were two rolls of paper towel in the kitchen, one for him and one for his friend. They could go everywhere they went on their battle, and clean up the collateral damage. If the job is a good one, the friend can continue to come over. If it’s a poor job, we’ll talk again.

All he could say was “OK.”

So, I’m off to see how they did! Let you know tomorrow.