T-shirt could become a best-seller

I got the idea for a Mom's t-shirt after hearing the latest lament from my own teen daughter. She can be quite nasty one moment. The next day, she's back to being nice. She's also been know to give me the evil eye and silent treatment when I committed the egregious offense of walking up to her and saying hello.

What I really love is when she comes up and gives me a big hug unprovoked. And the move is not even preceded by money exchanging hands. But I don't let it go to my head because soon I may feel the voodoo doll pain in my backside if I do.

This t-shirt slogan has been on my mind, "Parents have feelings, too!"

You develop thick skin as the parent of teens. If their door is closed, you learn to walk on by. Approaching them at the wrong moment led to many arguments and also to more ideas for a tee: "You're going to miss me when I'm gone!", "Just Bite Your Tongue, Mom", Or, "All I do for you and I get treated like this?"

If they come home visably bummed; well, that's tough. Do you march straight into their business? No. You have to gauge it to see if it requires something off-topic, like, "Want some hot chocolate?" instead. This is a verbal equivalent of a pat on the hand and let's them know you're there for conversation, if needed. Next move---theirs. This move comes from many "What's wrong?" queries which sometimes makes things worse. If after a reasonable amount of time they're still aggitated, you may offer a "Anything I can do?" I've had many verbal slings and arrows pierce the weak spot in my emotional armor so I know now to tread lightly during these teen dramas.

Mostly, you're left with just the very basics of conversation. Anything more and you're prying, smothering or even rambling. It comes down to space. We need to know when to give plenty of space to them and when to have plenty of space for them. And as hard as we try, we all end up getting our feelings hurt. I believe I like the "Parents have feelings, too!" after all. Either on a t-shirt or as our next conversation opener.