Twitches

I am out to do a study of human behavior. I know it's been a long time since my college days, but I'm sure my psych classes will come back to me when I get in the right frame of mind.

You see, Internets, I want to do a study of parents. A particular group of parents. Those who are raising teenagers. At the moment, I'm leaning towards those who are raising female teenagers. Of course, this is because Fred and I have the distinct joy of raising one at the present time.

Independence. During the teenage phase of life, I believe we all crave it with our very next breath. It is something we can almost taste, touch, even smell. Yet, we are contained by the parental units. These so called parental units seem to make it their full time job to hold us back. To repress us. This is, of course, my own personal take on the subject. I remember all too clearly feeling this when bumping my bruised butt through the teenage years. I remember in my Junior year (11th grade) looking up the word nonconformist. Oh man, was that not the coolest word ever? I wanted to be a nonconformist. I wanted to be my own person, not adhering to the rules society thrust upon us.

See? I was a loon in my own right. And Paige doesn't think I can relate.

How my parents survived me, then my brother five years later, I'll never know. I know now my mother has health issues. High blood pressure and bad nerves to name a couple. I'm wondering if maybe she got those gems of life from raising me. Because I can totally understand if she did.

Already I've been told I have borderline high blood pressure. Cutting out the salt has brought it down to safety levels once again. Okay, that's taken care of. Now that I have a two parent home where I don't have to fear the hubby going out to sea, I was absolutely sure the nerves would settle down and be just fine.

Then, she goes and misses the bus.

(insert loud sigh right about here)

A minor infraction, you're thinking? Well, it would be except every single morning I holler out the time to the child every few minutes. I tell her to get a move on and get her butt out to the bus. She screams back that she's not stupid, she can tell time, and "OMG, MAMA! WILL YOU JUST BACK OFF?!?!" This morning I decided to try a different approach. I needed to take a shower and get dressed before dressing The Boy for his trip to school. (I love school) She headed out the door and I didn't even check the time. I continued to dry my hair and next thing I know....she's back inside. Yeah, she missed the bus.

(insert another loud sigh right about here)

What is it going to take? Of course, it's not her fault. The bus came two minutes early. How stupid is that? How dare the bus driver deviate from Paige's tight schedule and cause such a disruption?

I called Big Daddy, who was already at work serving our country. I then decided that maybe it would be better to call that Carla Girl to see if she could help a sister out. She was kind and gracious enough to do so. The immediate problem was solved.

After she left, though, I found myself with almost a nervous twitch located in the head area. I know it's from the stress caused by a young woman with high anxiety and me with no nerve pills.

If you see me out and about, and you are fortunate (?) enough to be raising a teenage daughter? Don't mind me. I'm studying your behaviour to see if I'm the only parent going crazy, or if it is time to form some type of support group. That is all.