A Look Forward?

While at my brother’s house the other day, not only was I edgy (and yes, judgy) about the four yappy dogs, I was also (unreasonably, I admit) annoyed by the fact that there were two teenagers sitting around amidst the clutter and chaos that is a household that is trying to settle in.

These two were friends of my brother’s step-daughter. She’s a lovely girl, a typical teenager who likes to have her friends around even if it is most inconvenient for them to take up space as people are trying to move things in, unpack and organize an entire household.

I get it. I do. Teenager likes to congregate and when they’re together, they sit around like lumps and stare at their phones.

But I wondered if this is a look into my future. Let’s remember that I have two daughters who, by God’s grace, will both someday be teenagers, with teenage friends who will want to come over and be lumps on our couch.

These days, Alyssa loves to have friends over. But when that happens, she and her friend(s) can usually be found playing in her room, making a mess which can be out of sight (and thus, out of mind until I have to put laundry away.) And honestly, even when A and her friends are in the living room or family room, it’s not really that big a deal.

But I have to confess that I’m always kind of glad when the friend leaves and we have the house to ourselves again.

I don’t want my own introverted nature to put a damper on the girls’ social lives. I know I’ll have to get over my social inadequacies and awkwardness so they can have friends and hang out and just be kids. I want our house to be a place where teenage Alyssa and her friends hang out. I want to be that place where kids can go and be safe and have fun and not have to escape.

I just have to get over myself to make that happen.

But hear this…if we ever move again and either A or O are teenagers at the time? They’re not having friends over until the chaos is soothed, the dishes put away and the pictures hung. I don’t know how my brother and his fiance could stand having to work around kids who aren’t even their own.

Then again, my brother is way more social than I am so…there you have it.