Parenting a teen -- no one can say it's boring!

This morning my BlackBerry kept freezing up. Like most people, that annoys me more than it should. It froze whiling sending a new toddler photo to Facebook -- my little toddler man was dancing this morning in his red and white-striped PJs while clutching his lovey. I couldn't resist the cuteness. Anyway, the phone finally unfroze after I somehow also picket-dialed a friend in D.C. (sorry!) and I saw the emails and a text chug in. The text was a response from my teenager -- I had asked him to please bring home some receipts for his AP exams -- and he replied that he had read my previous blog post last night and said something to the effect of "nice things you said about me."

There are no shortage of mama bloggers out there -- indeed, my blog is called Run like a Mama, implying it is both about running and parenting. But what happens when they're old enough to read your blog and get annoyed?

I think if this had been my mom, she probably would have said something like, don't give me so much material to work with -- which of course would have made my teenaged self mad, right? LOL.

One of the hardest things about being a parent, I think, is being the bad guy and trying to explain to your kid why you are being the bad guy. I worry about him being out late and getting jumped. I worry about him being a party and getting in over his head, being pressured, and making bad decisions that could haunt him. Just a few days ago, another kid he went to eighth grade with was jumped, beaten and murdered not far from our house. I try to explain. But I remember when my parents tried to explain their rules and worries to me I didn't get it, I didn't want to hear it. They were out of touch and *I* knew what was going on, not them. (My dad reads this blog and I'm sure he's chuckling to himself, or at least nodding! Right dad?)

So, I guess we'll talk about it tonight. Poor kid got saddled with a writer for a mom.