Perfect Moment Monday: Getting Through to Teens

Each week I participate in Perfect Moment Monday, sponsored by WeeblesWobblog.com. According to Weebles, "Perfect Moment Monday is about noticing a perfect moment rather than creating one. Perfect Moments can be momentous or ordinary or somewhere in between." And so, here is a Perfect Moment for this week.

If you have teens or have been a teen, you've probably said or heard the line, "You just don't understand me!"

I recently read an NPR article entitled "The Teen Brain: It's Just Not Grown Up Yet" highlighting the biological reasons why teens sometimes seem like they're not using their heads. It has something to do with the development of their frontal lobes (the part of the brain that helps make decisions) and how that part of their brain is not fully connected.

It was very interesting (and satisfying) to find out there's a biological reason for this disconnect...but that doesn't alleviate the frustration I have when trying to communicate with one of my three teenage sons.

Speaking of which, I had to smile to myself today when I finally did get through to Ryan, who is 13 1/2.

As I've mentioned before, this is the time in my kids' lives when I am a taxi driver and a wallet (pretty much evenly divided between the two—except when I'm making something to eat, doing laundry, helping with homework, fixing something, etc.).

Ryan had asked if I could take him to his friend Jacob's house. I said I could, but I needed to do a couple of things before we left.

Fewer than 10 minutes later he came into my room.

Ryan: Mom, can we go?

Me: Ryan, I told you I have a couple of things I need to do before we leave. You know, I DO have a life!

We engaged in about a two-minute conversation, and then he said...

Ryan: Mom, can we go...(pause)...after you have your life (with a full teenage sarcastic accent).

He smiled because he had bugged me again but felt clever in adding in the part that was important to me ("having a life").

I smiled not only because Ryan has a good sense of humor, but also because in a very small way I thought perhaps I had gotten through to him...at least as much as you can get through to teenagers who are working with half a brain, anyway.

Okay. The article didn't specifically say the words "half a brain": that is my own editorial comment that I believe is sometimes warranted for a mother of three teenagers (Especially if she is trying to maintain her sanity!).

I laughed (because I truly thought his approach was clever), finished what I was doing ("having a life") and took him to his friends.

For some reason, this was a Perfect Moment for me.

If you'd like to check out more Perfect Moment Mondays, go to Weebles  Wobblog by clicking here.