People often comment on the difficulty of relating to teens.  Parents find it increasingly difficult to make connections with their teenagers.  At many times, there seems to be an invisible barrier between two very different breeds of folks:  parents and teens.

I’m grateful to have discovered a key to keeping real, lasting connection with my teens.  The secret is fitness.  Physical activity can bring two people close together within minutes.  Skill is not required, only a sense of humor and a genuine effort. 

Read more: Using Family Fitness to Connect with Your Teenager

College crunch time is as inevitable and seasonal as the holidays or hay fever. “The envelope please” are magic words not just at the Oscars, but at the “Ivies”. These days the college envelope might be opened online — but it hasn’t lost its drama. For the winners it’s the yellow brick road to fame and fortune. For the losers….well, at least they aren’t forced to fake a smile in front of a worldwide television audience. But you can almost hear the sound effects in homes across America: hearts breaking, bubbles bursting, dreams swirling down the drain.

Read more: College Crunch: Dreams, Decisions, Drama

I remember when my oldest was a baby or toddler rather. At times it was hard to understand him. Trying to decipher the language of an infant or toddler is much like trying to figure out html coding for the first time. If you've never seen it before, you may wind up confused, frustrated, and a complete mess by the time you're done.

Fast forward 11 years and I think I have it figured out. While some parents feel like the teen years are when communication really breaks down, I'm probably part of the minority that believes talking to your teen gets easier, if not more interesting.

Read more: Simple Solutions to Talking to Your Teen

Daughter J was wandering around here earlier looking for something to do, and hoping we'd let her out of the house to wander aimlessly around town by herself.

Not gonna happen!

Read more: When Teens Do Not Get What They Paid For

In the news yesterday, a bright young woman, Peggy Sweeney, answered an ad for a job advertised on the Internet in San Diego and has not been heard from since. Her family is understandably frantic. Also in yesterday's news , Gordon Cross was sentenced to life in prison for being a sexual predator and molesting children. His method of operation? Trolling the Internet for unsuspecting young victims.

Read more: Monitoring Internet Usage of Teens

Mommy Writers possess many tools in their creative arsenal. One piece of equipment, in particular, must be refueled several times per day, must be regularly emptied of waste, and smells much better if it is hosed down on a fairly consistent basis. Also, this tool needs at least seven or more hours of down time to function fully.

Read more: More Writing While Raising Teens

Whereas all but the psychologically troubled among us do our best to care for each and every one of our young, there are times when we are tempted to let unpleasant natural consequences take their course.

Read more: Mama Quolls

Sometimes, the kids are possessed of misplaced ambition. Consider the time when one of my teens wanted to eat starfruit, grapefruit, and mangoes, simultaneously. Consider, as well, the occasion during which another one of my youths insisted on wearing her brother's underwear on her head. At such moments, all a mother can do is smile and nod.

Read more: The Relative Power of Teenage Mockery

In taking a realistic look at how temporal priorities change as relationships mellow, as children develop, and as careers move forward, it's easy to recognize that Moms, especially those of adolescents, can have "everything, but not all at once." Simply, we can have our lives in phases, but not in totality at any given month, year, or decade.

Read more: Schedules and Other Laughable Matters: Limits as Love

Raising teens is like writing books. In both cases, the "author" of the developing project moves from inception, to draft, to completion in a nonlinear fashion. In fact, despite the customary stages through which one might expect such burgeoning forms to progress, there is almost always a situation or ten that takes place which throws any personal estimate of what "ought to be" out the window. Fortunately, both "imperfect" children and "imperfect" texts still tend to succeed.

Read more: Raising Teens is Like Writing Books