Friday 11 December 2015

Can we just skip the teen years altogether?

Right now, as you are reading this, I will be visiting with my brother, sister-in-law, nephew and mother.  We will gather around the table, or sit in the living room on our deep blue leather couches, and talk what would seem like babbling to others.  Two or three will talk across the room from each other, as two or three talk in a separate conversation, and then we will all join together, and then split up in into groups again.  And the conversation will go like that for 2 hours, before my brother, sister-in-law and nephew get up to go to a hockey game.

I love my nephew very much.  I was his nanny when he was young, and he's growing up.  He's getting more independent.  And yet he's so young.  When I was his age, I thought I was old.  Those little kids, they were young, but my friends and, we were old.

But my nephew, I'm not ready for him to enter the teen years.  I'm sure he's ready.  But I still remember when he pronounced the "ch" sound as "sh", and I had to rock him, before his afternoon nap.

I'm afraid of what the teen years will bring.  It seems that all sorts of awful things, like drug and alcohol addiction, eating disorders, smoking, and bad self-esteems start in the teen years.

I want him to magically skip his teen years altogether and become 21 in an instant, jumping past all those messy years.

But that's not possible, and I pray that he will come out the other side, without any scars, wounds or hurts that can't be 100% healed within few weeks of injury.

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