I wrote this post months ago and kept it as a draft. The kid is out of my house, and you wouldn't be able to identify which one.(and I can't remember..LOL)... so it's ok to post. More about me than the kid anyway!

"Nobody wants to raise teens Father!" Kids with simple issues are a problem during the teen years. That’s the major problem. You know, some good parents would like to pack their kids away in a box until they are 24 or 25 and become ‘human beings’ again. Between hormones, and the need to become independent (at oh, the ripe old age of 15?) Teens are usually hard to live with. And then there are the kids that you think are just fine, and realize that the quiet- is not shy it is depression. Goodness. I don’t know anyone who wants to BE a teen again, much less raise someone else’s teen.
We were discussing the needs of homeless gay youth after potluck. The guest speaker was our old Parent Support Team advisor, and is now the head of Memphis Catholic Charities. I began by asking him for a building.  Why start small?? And I was sharing that a group home, but small setting was what I thought was needed.

"There needs to be a ‘fraternity (in the best sense of that word) house’ type of setting, in my humble opinion. These are kids who have been told their mothers don’t love them. Along with food, shelter and counseling, they need someone who will let them know they are loved."  See, I can figure out the problems and the solutions...RIGHT???

wrong....

... less than 12 hours later I exploded at the young one in my house. He doesn’t make curfew regularly, and this past weekend was uncommunicative about his whereabouts. Last night, unaccounted for, I was the one answering HIS phone calls, from folks who don’t speak…VERY frustrating at 11pm.

And … as I do sometimes, I let a whole lot of stuff bubble up. Hurt his feelings, got mine hurt in the process too.

This shelter business is job for supermom. I AM NOT SUPERMOM.

I wasn’t crazy about my own teens some days, and I remember that when raising them…the tired’er I was, the angrier I got, patience evaporated with fatigue. And I was 20 years younger.

And I’m feeling really bad about hurting his feelings… and I’m still pissed that the problems exist. Maybe I could shine the bat sign in the sky tonight… and get Batgirl??? (I don’t think Lois Lane would be of any help)

Just a bit of venting.