This is a guest post from Compulsive Writer. Read more of her refreshing insights over at CompulsiveWriter.com. Enjoy!

In response to a recent post in which someone queried “Why is nobody writing happy things about teenagers?”, I wanted to assure you we are. You just may not be reading them.
So I’d like to link you to a few “teenage and beyond” posts of varying degrees of happiness, share a happy post of my own and introduce you to a few of the bloggers I know with teenagers. I hope you’ll find teenagers aren’t so scary. And know that even though there is often truly not enough time in the day (or enough computers in the house), there are still stories to tell.

Five facts about mommy bloggers with teenagers:

1. When we use the word “teenager” we apply it very liberally. Some pre-teens want to be teenagers before we–or they–are really ready.

2. There are sex talks and then there are sex talks.

3. Moms of young adults still know how to play a good game of leapfrog.

4. Sometimes it’s harder to be the parent than it is to be the teen.

5. Teenagers can be tough, but it’s still fun to watch them spread their wings:

of longboards, lingonberries and not-so-little girls

This is the post in which I admit out loud how much fun teenagers can be.

I. To Fly

Last night for some inexplicable reason (and against my better judgment) I found myself driving up Provo Canyon at 11:05 p.m. to take my son and some of his friends up for one last ride. I was torn. Sure I am aware of the risks. But I also remember exactly what it feels like to be a teenager. To want something so badly and yet have that desire completely unacknowledged or understood by anyone else. Particularly by your own parents.

Besides, doesn’t this look like fun? I kinda think if it weren’t for a bad knee or two (um. or the fact that I just might look a little ridiculous on one) I’d have a go at it myself.

I did insist Z~ wear a helmet. It was more or less pitch black outside. I also waited at the bottom of the canyon for them so I could make sure they got down OK. The wait wasn’t bad. There was a cool breeze in the night air. And it was nice to hang out and listen to a great piano recording and enjoy some rare solitude.

My warnings about how dark it would be had been completely laughed off, but I was secretly pleased when one of the boys who joined them cautioned they’d have to take it a bit slower because it was the other kid’s first time. Upon their return I did overhear them telling some other potential riders how dark it was (and how slowly they went because of it). Kids just have to discover some things for themselves. I guess we are all a little like that.

Isn’t that kind of why we are here?

I was glad last night I had relented and given a few inches when something really mattered to my kid. At one point (after I already had consented) Z~ pointed out that there were some way more stupid things he could be doing. And he’s right. I’ve done some of them myself (but don’t tell him that).

Z~ is my child who would probably be doing something like this if Utah weren’t landlocked

This morning Z~’s friend showed up at 7:06 a.m. and dragged him out of bed to do some weeding for me in the back yard (they owe me some money). Teenagers can be bought. And because I always negotiate fairly I think that’s a good thing.

II. To Eat

At 7:30 this morning three cute pajama-clad girls came to kidnap my oldest son and take him out for lingonberry crepes at IHOP. They had called earlier in the week wanting to kidnap him at 4:30 a.m. on a weekday so he could be back in time to get ready for work at 6:15. I subtly suggested perhaps Saturday would be a much better day because then they could go at a more reasonable hour and they wouldn’t be so tired for the rest of the week. (If you suspect I had ulterior motives in that you would be completely correct.)

These kids have all been friends since they were four or five years old. They don’t hang out together so much at school, but the ties that bind them run long and deep. It feels good to see them doing something fun together early on Saturday morning.

III. To Sleep

My daughter had two friends sleep over last night. (I got a loaded dishwasher and a relatively clean guest bathroom out of that request.) The staying-up-all-night-and-being-silly-only-to-be-snotty-the-next-day is one of my main issues with the occasional sleepovers I do allow. But amazingly the girls were already asleep when I returned home from Provo Canyon. And sometimes that’s when tween girls are the sweetest.

I was making homemade buttermilk biscuits and sausage and eggs for breakfast when the girls woke up. Z~ and his friend Joe had already downed their share. But L~ and her friends don’t have time for breakfast, I’m informed. They got up early to go help clean house for their friend whose mother just had a baby and will be coming home today. L~’s willingness to do something thoughtful like that sort of makes up for the resistance I get when I ask her to do something for me. At least this morning I see some of the important lessons we are trying to teach her are sinking in. Maybe it will all come out right in the end.

It’s kind of fun watching your kids grow up into the people they are supposed to become. Watching them hang with friends. Do a chore they really loathe, but do it better because they’ve got good company. Become passionate about something, learning to suck the marrow out of something they really love. Do something nice for someone else.

Isn’t that kind of why we are here?

(Want more? I’d like to introduce you to a handful of bloggers with teens. Just like with mommies with toddlers, their circumstances and their children can be very different. But I learn a little something from every one of them:

Lisa

Melody’s Garden,

Dear Dairy (I mean Diary!),

Daredevil mom, Deborah Gamble and

Excessively Diverted she posts about her kids under the tag “evil offspring”.)