by Marijane Suttor

Created on: November 01, 2008   Last Updated: March 10, 2009

Climb into the metal seat, buckle the seat belt and lower the protection bar. Listen as the conveyor moves along preparing to load other parents of teens into their ride of destiny. Gradually everyone is on board, and the ride takes off. There are moments of coasting smoothly along. At times it is an uphill climb,as I tensely grab onto the bar. In other moments it takes a plummeting dive through space that makes my hair fly back and my lips part in a cartoon grin as the pressure of falling through space takes me by surprise. Screams emit from my throat until I become hoarse and there are moments when I feel like I will barf up that corndog I ate while they were sweet little children, before I ever decided to hop on this rollercoaster called Teenage Hell.

I jest with this comparison of raising a teen to an amusement park rollercoaster, but it certainly can be the ride of a parent's life. Oh, this lovely trip into parenthood probably began with the carousel in the early years and ventured to the Ferris wheel in elementary school, but by middle school no matter how many rides there were, eventually, a parent is forced to tackle the rollercoaster. Be brave. It is an exciting, fun-filled and scary ride, but it feels so good when one can finally get off. The irony is that when parents chose to bring this young one into the world. they actually bought and paid for the opportunity to experience this ride.

I have raised one daughter who is 20 and I am currently on the ride of my life with my 16 year-old son. Both teens have had their moments and unique ways to torture the parent who is currently on the ride.

My husband, who is the even-keeled member of the family, never gets upset or worried about the dips in the ride unless money is involved. Someone smacks up a car or wrecks the door knob on the screen door though, and he decides at that time to jump on the rollercoaster mid-course. While I'm waiting up for the teen to walk in the door at midnight, he has long since went to bed and is snoring loud enough to wake the dead. Not only would he have no idea whether or not the teen arrived home safely or not, he isn't even aware that the teen is out of the house or even who he is cavorting with.

My husband blindly goes through life oblivious to everything that is happening around him. Ignorance is complete bliss. Then suddenly his ears perk up when the teen mentions something about driving to the nearest town to go to a movie. With an enormous leap, he jumps onto the rollercoaster

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