Teenagers

[pnutts]

Teenagers (author unknown)

I just realized that while children are dogs -- loyal and
affectionate -- teenagers are cats. It's so easy to be a dog owner.
You feed it, train it, boss it around.  It puts its head on your knee
and gazes at you as if you were a Rembrandt painting.  It bounds
indoors with enthusiasm when you call it.

Then around age 13, your adoring little puppy turns into a big old
cat.  When you tell it to come inside, it looks amazed, as if
wondering who died and made you emperor.  Instead of dogging your
doorsteps, it disappears.  You won't see it again until it gets hungry
-- then it pauses on its sprint through the kitchen long enough to
turn its nose up at whatever you're serving.  When you reach out to
ruffle its head, in that old affectionate gesture, it twists away from
you, then gives you a blank stare, as if trying to remember where it
has seen you before.

You, not realizing that the dog is now a cat, think something must be
desperately wrong with it.   It seems so antisocial, so distant, sort
of depressed. It won't go on family outings.

Since you're the one who raised it, taught it to fetch and stay and
sit on command, you assume that you did something wrong. Flooded with
guilt and fear, you redouble your efforts to make your pet behave.
Only now you're dealing with a cat, so everything that worked before
now produces the opposite of the desired result.  Call it, and it
runs away.  Tell it to sit, and it jumps on the counter.  The more
you go toward it, wringing your hands, the more it moves away.

Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you can learn to
behave like a cat owner.  Put a dish of food near the door, and let
it come to you.  But remember that a cat needs your help and your
affection too.  Sit still, and it will come, seeking that warm,
comforting lap it has not entirely forgotten.  Be there to open the
door for it.

One day your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen, give you a big
kiss and say,

"You've been on your feet all day. Let me get those dishes for you."

Then you'll realize your cat is a dog again.

Edited September 23, 2013 by pnutts

[surfergirl]

Good one Peter.

 

My daughter has just turned 10yrs. I have noticed some behavior changes along some of those lines. LOLS.

SO then what do you call little kids that already turn up their noses to mum's cooking.

SO hard to please them.

[GrumpysWife]

Good one Peter.

 

My daughter has just turned 10yrs. I have noticed some behavior changes along some of those lines. LOLS.

SO then what do you call little kids that already turn up their noses to mum's cooking.

SO hard to please them.

Hungry!

[LuanaGlobal]

Thanks,

 

From a Mom of a 13 yr old girl.

[Toy Poodles]

my spiritual grandma told me when I had 4 youngs ones, she sat me down nicely and said I don't want to hurt your feelings but you don't have the money to take food orders from your kids, you are the mom, you fix the food they eat it, end of story. Ever since then that is what I done and they learned not to snub the food or they go without. They didn't go without for long.