The teenagers

Last week, Sarah missed curfew by 10 minutes.  She delivered her excuses and apologies and was worried she would be in big trouble.  We said it was ok and to do better in the future.  Noah huffed, "What! That's all she gets?  I got home at 9:59 when I was her age and you yelled at me for cutting it too close!  She's a full 10 minutes late, and it's fine?"  I shrugged and said, "Well, she's the second born.  You were our guinea pig."

Last night she came home from youth group with pretty bad damage to the front of the car.  She had run into a post when she was backing out of a driveway. Noah was sure the sparks were going to fly when we saw the car.  But all I said was, "Well, I did way worse than that when I was 16.  That's why we can't have nice things."

Noah has some bad shower habits, always knocking over the shampoo and conditioner bottles and leaving puddles all over the floor.  Sarah wrote him a very civilized note, calling him out on it and asking him to change his behavior.  

My favorite part was "detrimental to my socks".  Mike and I agreed with her assessment, and he said he would do better.  Then he started looked at houses online.  He likes to fantasize about living on his own with no parental rules and annoying siblings.  I used to fantasize about the same thing when I was his age.  I was 23 when I bought my first house.  He'll probably be younger than that.

P.S.--Mike's dad is back in the hospital with pneumonia.  He tested negative for coronavirus.