We now have a teenager in the house

I’m not sure how it happened exactly, but last week The Son celebrated his thirteenth birthday. According to the fact that “teen” is right there in the name,¹And my interpretation of the the somewhat dissatisfying OED definition. I am forced to conclude that he is indeed now in fact a teenager.

A teenager?!? Really? I knew this day was coming, but I didn’t think it would arrive so soon.

How could this turn into this so quickly? It seems like just yesterday I was changing his diapers and watching The Wiggles with him²I still know all their songs, too. in the wee hours of the morning. Now he’s nearly as tall as his mother and bar mitzvah-eligible.³At least The Daughter is still a good 7+ years from becoming quinceañera-eligible.

His birthday fell on a Tuesday this year, so that meant he got to do all those fun birthday things like going to school and doing homework afterwards at the neighborhood library. To help mitigate the midweek suckage, I let him choose whatever he wanted for dinner and he opted to run for the border.⁴If given the choice, he would eat every meal at Taco Bell. Then we came home and opened birthday presents. He is now awash in cash and iTunes/Amazon gift cards.

His big gift from us was a television for his room, so he can set up his X-Box in there and play without hogging the main TV in the living room. We also moved our AppleTV into his room and now he can stream all his Netflix and YouTube videos to his little heart’s content on a larger screen.

Just like last year, we had a slumber birthday party for him and some of his friends. This meant four other pre-teenagers⁵Because of the cutoff date difference between Texas and California schools, he’s a year older than many of his classmates. invading our house on a Friday night for games, food, and general tomfoolery. Getting him a television for his room immediately paid dividends, as the boys stayed in his room almost for the entire evening and left us pretty much alone. Surprisingly, they spent a good part of the evening playing old SNES games like Mortal Kombat 3 and Mario Kart. They basically just came out to eat.⁶Five large pizzas, eight liters of soda, a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, and most of a 9×13 cake.

Since they were all in sleeping bags on the floor in The Son’s room, The Daughter decided the she also needed to sleep in a sleeping bag on the floor in her room. I have no idea what time the guys went to sleep, or if they did at all. They were still going strong when I went to bed at 1 a.m.

The next morning, The Son said he wasn’t tired. Then he proceeded to fall asleep in the living room in the middle of the afternoon.

Personal concerns

Something that The Wife and I have been struggling with is wrapping our minds around the fact that we are the parents of a teenager. How old does that make us? Are we really that old?

I don’t think we’re that old. Obviously he was born when we were 5 or something.

And he’s getting old too. Three years away from driving.⁷Although certainly not in the city. Five and half years away from college. Ten years away from being my age when he was born. Crazy to think about that.

In any case, I remember 13 being a pretty good year for me. I hope his Year of 13 is a good one for him as well.

• 1
  And my interpretation of the the somewhat dissatisfying OED definition.
• 2
  I still know all their songs, too.
• 3
  At least The Daughter is still a good 7+ years from becoming quinceañera-eligible.
• 4
  If given the choice, he would eat every meal at Taco Bell.
• 5
  Because of the cutoff date difference between Texas and California schools, he’s a year older than many of his classmates.
• 6
  Five large pizzas, eight liters of soda, a 1/2 gallon of ice cream, and most of a 9×13 cake.
• 7
  Although certainly not in the city.