The Brilliance of Youth

My children are brilliant. I know where they got it from (hee hee). But really.... I am amazed at what comes out of their mouth at such a young age, especially the sixteen year old.

At an age where hormones are raging, emotions run all over the place and independence is exerting itself, there are observations on how things work that I find hilarious and spot on... as only a sixteen year old can describe.

My youngest was upset...angry is more like it... at his father and brother. He had plans to do his "own thing" this weekend (whatever that was). Instead, his plans were disrupted so that his father and brother could do what they wanted. I think we can all imagine what it's like to be the sixteen year old having the rug pulled out from underneath.

For the next 30 minutes, I was his captive audience while he let it fly. It went something like this:

"Why does everyone else get to do what they want and what I want isn't important? I had plans... there was stuff I wanted to do this weekend and just because they want me to do what they want, my whole weekend is ruined. Nobody ever considers my feelings. I'm always the one who has to compromise. My brother always gets to do what he wants. If Dad asks him to do something and he doesn't feel like it, then he doesn't do it... nobody can make him do anything. But I always have to do what everyone else says. It's not fair. There's no reason why I can't do the things I planned other than Dad doesn't want me to."

It went on.... but you get the general idea. Instead of saying a word, I just listened. Which is something you just need to do with your kids. I didn't take what he said personally... he had to let it out so he could let the anger go.

When his rant was over, since his plans were changed, what did he want to do now..

"I don't know."

"Well... what do you think you would enjoy? What sounds like fun?"

"I don't know. What is fun anyway...?"

"Huh. Good question. How can we figure this out?"

"I don't know... there are too many thoughts in my brain flying around. I can't just pick one."

"What do you mean"

"My brain is like a big room. The walls on either side have velcro and my thoughts are like little balls bouncing and flying around with bits of velcro on them. When one of them sticks to the wall.... I have a thought I can hold onto."

Did he just say what I think he said???? What a perfect analogy for the confusing thoughts that run through our minds, waiting for us to grasp onto and make sense of.

So I said, "Or it can also be like the little lottery balls flying around in the box... when one finally pops up and can be read..... DING - I have a thought!"

He nodded in agreement. When did he become so brilliant?? So I took it a step further... we get angry or frustrated, sometimes you have too many balls bouncing around inside your mind, some of them sticking, then getting knocked off by another one, etc.... It becomes too much to deal with and overwhelming. Sometimes ya gotta open the window and let some of them fly out so they can become more manageable....

Yeah.... I like that!! My son is brilliant.... now time to get rid of some balls!

and yes.... we had fun the rest of the evening.