Scary Teenagers

Am I the only one afraid of teenagers? I'm serious. They are so scary and mean. They always travel in packs and I could easily be outnumbered should a confrontation arise. I'd be squashed trying to protect my two little ones. As a mom I just want to know how an adorable toddler like Sophia becomes the underdressed, loud-mouthed, teenager at the mall? More importantly I want to know how to avoid that from ever happening.

Now of course not all teenagers are scary and mean. I happen to know several nice ones. So is bad parenting, peer pressure or the broken educational system to blame? Maybe it's a combination of all three. I'm thinking back to when I was a teenager. Was I scary and mean? Sometimes my friends and I would go to the mall after school or hang out in parking lots but I don't think we were causing harm. Were we? Were there moms around with little kids who were worried to be around us? I doubt it. And when I think about it, even if there were, I would have never noticed. I was too busy having fun.

So maybe that means the same holds true for today's teenagers. They have no idea that I exist. They are in their own little world. They are testing the limitations of their new found freedom. For the first time in their lives they are allowed to be unsupervised. As a mom, in my early thirties, I'm not sure what scares me more. Am I afraid of my own kids becoming teenagers and growing up too fast? Or am I afraid that I'm growing up too fast and can more easily relate to my parents than my teenager days? Either which way...I think next time I see the scary teenagers somewhere I'll sympathize with them a little. If they only knew how much better it gets...