Afflicted Mother is enjoying her House of Harmony. The phone no longer rings ceaselessly from 3:30 pm onward. Gone is the jumble of shoes of Ill-fated Daughter’s Cherished Friends that normally fills the front foyer. The incessant clacking of the keyboard no longer disrupts the evening peace.
Ill-fated Daughter is confined to the Gilded Cage. From there, Ill-fated Daughter can simply observe the World of Evil about her. With clipped wings, she can no longer sprint through the garden of temptation tearing large bites from the flesh of Forbidden Fruits. Instead, she spends long hours perched before her mirror where she preens, exfoliates, tweezes, plucks and engages in other activities that involve Close Examination of Self.
Now and again, when Afflicted Mother happens to pass by, Ill-fated Daughter shouts down from her perch, “THIS IS POINTLESS AND RETARDED!”
Afflicted Mother says nothing but notes to self that this is also a tidy summation of Life as a Parent.
“EVERYONE ELSE HAS NORMAL PARENTS,” Ill-fated Daughter shouts. “EVERYONE ELSE CAN STAY OUT AS LATE AS THEY PLEASE AND SLEEP WHERE THEY WANT.
THEY CAN EVEN GO ON CRUISES WITH THEIR BOYFRIENDS!!
THIS IS POINTLESS AND RETARDED!” she hollers.
In the quiet and uneventful hours, Afflicted Mother likes to read about frontal lobe development in teens and other related topics. She favours articles with names like “Now I Know Why Tigers Eat Their Young.” She has learned that according to various experts, the teenage brain is a Work in Progress. It is NOT equipped for logical and organized thought and is full of Immature Circuitry! As such, teenagers DO NOT yet have all the brain power they need to make good judgments.
The good news is that sleep helps further the development.
The bad news is that full development is only completed by the age of 20.
In the quiet darkness of the night, while Ill-fated Daughter sleeps, Afflicted Mother tiptoes very, very quietly to the liquor cabinet.
Drifting away
3 years ago
