ohhhhhh, durh!

The current atmosphere in my home is ripe with "Why do you need to know where I am EVERY second of the day" and "You don't get to decide who I hang out with!" or "Why does there always need to be a parent around if I am at someone's house?" etc....etc... and of course the classic "You just don't understand me!"

oh jeez. It finally happened. For real this time. Something internally tickles me that perhaps this is just the beginning of another phase with Max. sigh. It's always interesting and challenging, I'll give him that.

As it turns out there is a girl in the picture and from the sounds of the voicemails, emails and text messages....they are deeply and madly in love. I'm talking that insane kind of love that only hormones and 15 year old bodies can produce. yuck. I feel bad for the kid, he's not going to know what hit him.

This explains a lot actually. The obvious need to pull away from me. The insistence on total privacy. The snotty behavior and acting like I'm a total embarrassment to his very existence.

Yessss, it's allll making a lot more sense. DUH Mom, jeez.

However, I do have the unfortunate duty of informing him this evening that his phone will be confiscated after the hours of 8 PM until 6 AM Sunday - Fridays. You see, these days kids who are madly in love and think they can outsmart their parents stay up until 3 AM on a school night texting their hormone fueled confessions of love and angst about their sucky parents to one another. It's all so romantic isn't it? Swoon. Yeah, well not so romantic that Mom doesn't get to come in with a hard core does of reality.

Because you see dear Max, you can't just take a nap during math class to catch up on the sleep you lost while telling your girlfriend how much you adore her and think she's really hot. Of course, really, who needs math anyway? You certainly won't because you'll be digging ditches at this rate. Yet, as I am someone who ALSO adores you a great deal, I will take the lead and do the motherly thing and ground your ass from your phone at night so the natural repercussions of your actions will be made clear.

You can argue that I am annoying and controlling and difficult to communicate with. You can throw a tantrum and stomp around and try to punish me by not speaking to me. You can claim invasion of privacy, that I simply don't want you to have a social life and that because I don't have a love interest, I have NO possible way of relating to what you are going through.

I know, I know. It's all really unfair. You are right about that. Except, I'm your mom and while I do respect your right to privacy as much as possible if you think I'm not going to find out about what your up to at 3 AM on a Sunday night, you are sadly mistaken. You see, while you kids these days have all the benefits of technological advances that no generation before you has had, you must also understand that these communication advantages you have leave a trail. And your sucky mom (and this is the really unfortunate part for you my dear boy) has a fairly high working knowledge of such things as texts and emails and MySpace pages. I know, it's shocking AND as you've mentioned previous times annoying. I hear ya, I seem to remember thinking all adults were extremely irritating as well there for a while. Sorry though kiddo, the bummer thing about life in general is that if you blow it one too many times, you often don't get second changes. And then don't get to have things like text messages with your girlfriend whenever you feel like it and the freedom to spend the night with friends. I will always respect you, I love you and care about you. But because I'm your mom, I have to be the one to draw the line. I really have no choice and I'm sure you'll do your best to punish me and be nasty for the next few days, but now that I know there is a girl in the picture, it all makes alot more sense. It really doesn't need to be this hard, I'm not asking you to give me the full details of your dates (ew) or content of your phone conversations. Flirt away my dear boy, have fun! But you do have to stay awake during math class and you really don't need to be on the phone at 3 AM bragging to Kayley about how you don't' have to listen to your mom and you can do whatever you like.

Oh and lying to me. That's another no no that will get your freedom pass revoked. You are clearly old enough to begin dating, you are also old enough to be doing this with your friends without supervision to some extent. Except, when you lie to me about where you are and who you are with.....how do you expect me NOT to be all up in your business? Mmmmm, silly boy. If you think I won't find out...I'm sad to inform you that I usually will. Another really unfortunate thing for you Max is that I am wise to what your up to. Not all of it, but definitely a good portion of it. Because you see it wasn't that long ago that I was a teenager myself and I was a wiley one in my own way. Yes, you need to explore and test and try and find out how much you can get away with. I expect a certain amount of that because it's your job right now to begin the journey of finding out who you are without me. That's cool and I totally support it. But again, if you blow it really bad.....well I have to be the mom then and I know you don't always like that, but tough tookies kid. One thing I learned for some from previous experience is that people who love you actually do put down boundaries, they say No and let you know that your behavior isn't cool. if I didn't care....you'd be out doing whatever you like at hours of the night with whomever you want. I know you know kids like this and it all sounds pretty appealing right now, but again....I care about what happens to you, a lot. I care that you don't think school is as important as "hooking up" with your girlfriend and I care that you think that you can blow of your school work like this and still play soccer. I care about your body and that your not getting enough sleep, which was apparent by the fact that getting you out of bed this morning was at least 10 x harder then normal and you were late for school even with me cracking the whip to get your butt moving. And I care when your snippy and nasty too me because guess what, not only is not cool to be mean to your mom, I know you don't know this right now....but I'm setting the precedence for how you'll treat women the rest of your life right now and mostly, you are fantastic......but this crap of lying and sneaking around and being disrespectful and nasty, it ain't gonna fly with me and I'd be appalled if you grew up to treat the women in your life the same way.

But above and beyond all this Maxter, I love ya and I think life doesn't have to be this hard. But it's mostly up to you and all I can do is keep letting you know that your loved and at the same time, I have to allow the natural repercussions of your actions to occurr as well. Negative or positive. For which you may blame me and take it out on me because you are pissed off that your not getting what you want, but that's ok, you'll get over that too.

Hang in there, you will make it through the next week with no texting at 3 am. I promise!