Scouts Ahead on the Path

I'm really beginning to understand the value of friends who are further along the path in life. Scouts, I call them, who relay important information from their experiences about particular trouble spots on life's path ahead of me.

In talking with one of these scouts recently, I discovered that most of the confusing, discouraging and stupid stuff I experience as a Dad of three teenagers is not unique to me. Most, if not all, parents of teenagers go through them.

For example, I was bemoaning to my friend (the scout) about how my children would rather do almost anything than spend time with me. Even the youngest one, my Nina, who has always seen me as Superman, seems to be viewing my cape as faded.

My friend paused for a moment then simply said, "Welcome to the leper colony!"

That's it! I realized one thing parents of teens have in common is they know exactly what it feels like to be an outcast of society, as if they should go around exclaiming, "Unclean! Unclean!" Scout and I had a great laugh together, and that made it a whole lot better.

Of course, the actual life stage of parenting three teens at once is a brief one for us--less than a full year. Our oldest turns 20 in April and our youngest just turned 13 last August. But adolescence is not always measured by clean cut birthdays, now is it?! I know this, because Valerie said to me just the other day, "Sometimes I think you're still a 13 year-old boy hung up in a 50 year-old man's body!"