A Teen Owners' Manual

   There is no owners' manual for a teen and even if there was, it would have to be updated daily.   Perhaps the better guide would be Ripley's Believe It Or Not.

   Example # 1

  "Mom took a Benadryl for her cold and won't wake up and I'm hungry."

  "Well, we went grocery shopping last night.  There's plenty in the house to eat."

  "That stuff isn't for dinner.   That's for other meals.   If I eat that, I won't have anything to eat Friday."

  "Well, we could just pick up something Thursday."

  I wound up bringing home chicken and waffles from IHOP at midnight.

  Lesson: Food categories should also include when it can be consumed!


  Example # 2

  We recently brought said teen a trash can.  The trash can remained in the hall.   

  Other items, like paper, food wrappers, water bottles and packaging littered the floor.  Oh, and tissues.  Lots and lots of tissues.

   Fed up one night, I picked all of it up and deposited in the trash can, which was a scant 10 inches away.

  "Thanks, I was going to get to that."

  IT'S 10 INCHES AWAY!

 
 Example #3

"Hey, I was checking my bank account today and there was a 20 dollar Nintendo charge.  Does anybody know what that was?"

"Oh yeah.  I asked you about it a few weeks ago, but you were pretty sleepy and probably don't remember it.   It's a game I told you about."

"Okay, that clears it up."

"Yeah, I figured you might not remember, because you had been asleep."


Note to self:  Never go to bed!