Ah, thirteen, that magical age that most parents dread.  And with good reason – the teen years are notorious for being way worse than the terrible two or troublesome threes ever dreamed of being.  My teen years were every bit as dramatic as any soap opera, and I’m sure everyone can relate.

An avid diarist, I read back through some of them once some years ago and realized that a.) as a teen, I was truly awful and b.) if my kids are anything like me, my uppance will come.  All my teenage entries were generally some sort of variation on the theme, “Blah blah blah my life is awful blah blah blah everything sucks blah blah blah no one likes me blah blah blah I am undateable blah blah blah my life is over.”

Naturally, being a teenager, there was a whole lot more swearing in there.  There were even some pictures cut out of magazines and taped in for posterity and late-night drooling.  There were also the requisite doodles of hearts and boys’ names.

Not all of this drama was of my own making, however.