When moms are right...

Remember when you were a teenager and you mom would sigh and say "Just wait until you have teenagers...you'll understand!" Well...gee...mom was right! I have actually had it pretty easy up until about a month ago when my teenagers started acting their age! They are twins...17 years old...both of them late bloomers. I always knew it would happen...the hormones and indignant behavior would kick in and I would become the stupidest person on the face of the earth. But, even though I completely expected it and waited for it to come, it hasn't been an easy thing to accept. I actually was entertaining the thought that maybe, by some strange twist of fate and some divine blessing from God, that I would get to have dream kids that would look up to me and my infinite wisdom and remain lovingly devoted to their mother and skip the whole know-it-all stage. Nope...no such luck! So...today was an especially exhausting day...for no other reason than I'm realizing that the dream has died. I'm deflated. My kids are normal. They're not dream kids. I'm not supermom....well, not to them, anyway! I know I'm doing my best and, with the smallest amount of therapy, they should be just fine! But here's what I'm grasping...my kids ARE normal...this is normal. This stage in life is necessary. If they were sweet forever I wouldn't want them to leave for college...I really, really want them to leave for college now! I want them to experience poverty (the kind you can be rescued from -the top ramen until the next paycheck kind) and having to work at a job you hate until you can find one you love (ok, they're experiencing that right now) and the stresses of doing for yourself (ie: laundry, cooking, cleaning, buying groceries, holding down a job, paying the bills, etc). They do a lot for themselves, but not all at once! It's good stuff...makes you appreciate all you've been given...all you work for...what is to come... So...I'm excited for them...frustrated with them...unsure what is ahead for them...but I'm going to love them through it all! Being a mom is the most exhausting job and then you get to say..."Just wait until you have teenagers...then you'll understand!" and you KNOW - even though they're thinking "Yeah, right, when I have teenagers I'll be a cool mom/dad" - YOU are right - they are wrong - they'll be lame parents, just like you are! Yesssssssssss!