How long will teens hate Mom and Dad

I have been enjoying a great number of stories via Audible this year. Audible is an application which reads stories to the listener.

 

Editor Deb talked to me numerous times about the benefits of listening to stories as opposed to reading them. (Not that she or I don’t still read.)

 

I like to keep busy and do enjoy reading. A few years ago I started reading regularly, every night, as a new, old hobby. Last year I only managed a small handful of books. I was slacking. 

 

On my drive back from Florida in January, Deb’s voice was speaking to me in the back of my mind. So I downloaded Audible and listened to two books during my 23-hour, two-day drive.

 

Over the past month I have listened to two more books and am not slowing down. As someone who likes to keep busy, I find car rides, walks and gym workouts perfect for listening to stories. One of my favorite parts about life is listening to people tell stories. It makes even more sense now why Audible is perfect. I had missed the feeling one has when fully engulfed in a good story. I imagine it might be similar to a drug addict's cravings. Or maybe just that strong craving one may have for a milkshake.

 

I have been spending more time with my father this year. I read somewhere a couple years ago that, when a teenager reaches the age of 14 or 15, they start to ‘rebel’ against their parents. Apparently, a teen’s instinct makes them ignore and push against everything their mom or dad tells them. I guess this is a way to ‘learn for oneself.’

 

This same article went on to explain that this lasts until age 28 or 29 when the individual then realizes their parents are not the enemy- that they really are doing the best they can, and that parents really do have more life experience.

 

I don’t know if this is why, but I’ve started playing cribbage with my dad twice a week as well as going to church with him on Sundays. My dad really is the best cribbage player in the world. And I’m the second best. There is no arguing with me on this. 

 

My dad and I spent thousands of hours playing cribbage together during my youth. I think we started around my age of 10. Dad remembers playing cribbage with his dad who died when he was only 10 or so.

 

Cribbage is a card game played to 121 points on a board with small fingernail length pegs used to track points on a small board with holes in it. The pegs are moved one at a time as players score points.

 

Growing up we played together on my dad’s dad’s cribbage board, the same one he brought with him to Alaska during World War II. Dad let me use the original wooded pegs. The other two were lost and replaced long ago. I have never used any other cribbage board with pegs that move in as smoothly as those do. To this day I recall my dad telling me how important it is to treat that board and those original pegs with care. “You don’t know how easy it is to break them,” he told my 10-year-old self.

 

We track our wins and losses on a yellow legal pad at his house, and a PHB law office legal pad when we play at my house.

 

Every time we have played this month, my dad has reminded me how proud he is of me. I’m really grateful for this time with my father, and I urge really everyone who still has parents alive or adult children alive to spend time with them. It is truly invaluable time. Priceless. 

 

I’ve even taken to inviting my dad to outings with my friends. And I wasn’t the first one to do this. My friends often invite their parents. Parents are now quite literally, part of the friend group. It makes me smile to think back to teenage years when the thought of hanging out with your friends and parents would make me cringe. Now, my friends and I actively try to include them in our game nights.

 

How the turn tables. 

 

(That is a play on words my friends like to say in place of: how the tables turn.)