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teens
January 2009 
The Truth, the Whole Truth, and nothing seems to be the Truth....
Posted on Dec 20th, 2008
by 
Laura
Laura
Ok, so perhaps leaving him unsupervised last night, with two friends here to egg him on was not the wisest parenting choice.
However, it IS the holiday season, and I do also have a life beyond parenting.
Or perhaps, right now - I don't.
My beloved and I left the boychild home with two friends while we went out for a brief round of two social gatherings within 10 blocks of home. Figured he couldn't get into too much trouble while we were having dinner.
Or could he?
Shortly after arriving at the party, we received a cell call from the boychild, innocently asking when we'd be home. "Why", I asked - obviously suspicious. "Just wondering", he replied. Hmmm...."well", I responded, " you should expect me to come through the door any moment - so behave accordingly".
Another cell call - one of my husband's colleagues who was bussing to the office dinner gathering we were at had overshot her bus stop and was calling for a lift. Husband heads out to pick her up, and there's the boychild, with one of the friends.....out and about, without permission, sledding in the snow down a VERY busy, but temptingly steep, snow covered road.
So today we'll have yet another conversation about what the TRUTH means, and how deception is lying and figure out how to reign in this wildchild yet a bit more.
Love this writer's take on teens - something to be learned here:
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2001/20011216/spectrum/main4.htm
When I debriefed the flow of events with my son, he admitted he'd felt guilty the entire time he was slipping and sliding down the hill, knowing that he'd crossed a boundary by heading out without permission.
We subsequently had a lengthy conversation reviewing the more subtle elements of truth-telling, and why it's important to be 100% clear in order to have others trust you.
The sad truth? He, like many of his friends, think that occasional lying to parents is just part of being a teen.
So how does a parent deal with that reality?
That's a big part of my parenting journey these days.
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