I am the adult - right?

My mother gave me a book for Mother's Day. I realize that the appropriate thing would be for me to give my mother something memorable and beautiful, but I am so overwhelmed at the moment, the best that I could do was dinner. Fortunately for me, dinner seemed to be just the ticket my mother was looking for, so we were all happy.

The book however, has confirmed what I have been telling myself and working on for quite sometime. It is a book written about the relationship between a mother and her tween daughter. Now we know that Charlotte is no longer truly a tween, and that Helene isn't quite there yet, but since there are no clear cut lines on tween beginning and ending, they both qualify at opposite ends of the spectrum. What does this book say? Basically, it says what most of us already realize. Raising children is hard but worth it. Most kids are not outrageously bad or good, although often outrageous. That adolescent females get a bad wrap because the media has decided that they are hormone ridden and that there can be nothing gained by a relationship with a young women. And ofcourse, it says, often, the one thing that seems to be so hard for me to implement. That we, as parents, are the adults. Running at the mouth (my personal specialty) is not allowed. It is so hard for me to keep my very sarcastic and always appropriate, but devastatingly brutal comments, to myself.

OK, I know. I need to let them learn about things and not cram it down there throat. I just want to know when they are going to start caring about our feelings a little bit- does that sound childish and immature or what? I know, kids aren't supposed to have to worry about how things affect us, we are supposed to manage on our own and be very happy about whatever they are able to share with us. We are supposed to glean the joy whenever possible. But can they at least comprehend that we aren't really thrilled about the prospect of summer school either and if they would just get their head out of their _ _ _ for a moment, maybe they could see that too?

I am at a major loss to explain how honesty has become optional in our house. Now again, it is not lying about really important things, but goodness, if they are not telling the%2