Are you afraid of teenagers?  I'm not:  general category.  I am:  my own child becoming.  Teenagers in general are extremely attractive globs of iddy goo, unaware of how frickin' awesome they look now, what with their lack of cellulite, abdominal muscles and unlined skin, unaware of how completely uninformed and unformed they are, convinced as they are that they know everything just because they can hit the eighteenth level of Whatever Game Is Not Important to Me.

We have reached the last weekend of summer.  That can only mean one thing in this house.  We have reached the last minute panic as I inventory closets and drawers to see if I really do have to make that journey to the mall for the yearly Back-To-School shopping torture experience.  After two hours and 5 stores, I left the mall with a teenage son who bought a new pair of shoes, some socks and one shirt.  My tween?  He had one pair of jeans and one shirt.  That's all.So much for getting prepared ahead of time this year!

Of course what teens are wearing -- and what they spend on those clothes -- is always a hot topic, for all of the obvious reasons. But Eileen Putnam's recent article on CNN.com starts out going for flash (the title is Mom shocked by teen's modest clothing) and then goes on to detail a myriad of conclusions which one could argue are both illogical and self-conflicting.

I won't presume to know better than a bunch of college and university presidents...But, I'm just not sure I believe that lowering the drinking age to 18 will reduce teen binge drinking. However, I imagine, it might take some of the responsibility off of the colleges to reduce underage drinking on their campuses.

Can a good movie reduce stress? I've always believed that smiling and laughing is healing in some way. And, there is a lot of evidence that supports that theory. I also know that for me, music can deeply affect my mood. Some songs are sad reminders of the past, and others are happy reminders of experiences I never want to forget. Seeing the movie Mamma Mia with my daughter, and listening to all the music, is definitely going to be a lasting and happy memory for me.

I came home Monday afternoon to a strange house. A confused woman who does not know me had been wandering its rooms, but now sat quietly, staring into space. Another woman that I barely know busily cleaned one room, shaken by what she'd witnessed, and a little old man hobbled in the living room. In the back bedroom, a young giant slumbered in clutter, and the family cat did not peep from behind the kitchen's bay window curtains to see who'd come to visit. Neither did the family dog bark in the backyard as he usually does when anyone arrives.

In my household when we talk about that "soft glowing light flickering in the night" we are not talking about candles. We are talking about the various technological gadgets that our teens- and we as parents- are plugged into every day. My teen and my tween both have a cell phone, an MP3 player, a Nintendo DS and other various hand-held games and portable DVD players. Those are just the electronics they have that are portable. We aren't even mentioning the gaming consoles, computers and laptops that are a part of everyday life.

Do Good Moms Have Teens That Use Drugs? We try so hard to be the best moms we can be. But does that guarantee us drug free kids? Unfortunately, not. I know moms who seemed to do everything right, and their teen still started drinking or doing drugs. Most parents think it could never happen to their child, but it does. So, would you know if your teen was doing drugs? What should you do? Is Your Teenager Using Drugs or Alcohol...

Should YouTube and other online video sites be held more accountable for the increase in fights being posted on their sites? After that horrible incident in Florida a few weeks ago of several girls luring another girl to a house so they could beat her up, videotape the incident and then post it on YouTube, there have been many discussions about whether YouTube bears any responsibility for monitoring what's posted on their site more closely.

Media outlets throughout the country are carrying an Associated Press article by Eileen Alt Powell with the lead paragraph, Albertsons supermarket said "no." So did Macy's department store and a local grocer. As I write this, my 19-year-old has her summer job locked up--she will be returning to her old job as a barista at Caribou Coffee. Actually she will be a shift manager thi

Mom-bloggers are a powerful presence in the blogosphere, and we 20- and 30-something mothers of little ones love to tell our stories of potty training and PTA. But there is a strong group of mom-bloggers writing about the challenges that come further along in the motherhood journey, writing about parenting teenagers and young adults. These seasoned moms have a thing or two to teach those of us still in the trenches. Mid-Century Modern Moms is a group blog launched just this week.  It's written by ten moms of older kids. They were inspired to launch this blog after noting that We didn't have a playgroup or a school PTA anymore. Our kids were old and independent and didn't really want to hang out with us much anymore. We needed a spot where we could talk about all the things that make parenting teens so challenging and rewarding. We needed a place to let our hair down and talk about dirty socks and smelly boys and kids that are eating us out of house and home. We needed a place where other moms were going through the college admissions process, and then saying "goodbye" to their precious children as they moved on in their lives.

I've known this day was coming since the first day I held my son in my arms. The day he would start driving. I don't know about other mothers, but this is sending me right to the edge of sanity. Since the first day (three weeks ago), I have had a constant twitch in my left eye. I don't think it is a coincidence...I think it's most likely an outward physical manifestation of my subconscious fears and anxieties over my son driving. I just made all that up, but you know what I mean, right?