Wine Matters

Our brain works in mysterious ways. It is still a widely untapped area and research has shown that most of us use only 10% of our brain at any given time. Even less, if you're a teenage boy. It's all considered Grey Matter. If you are the parent of a teenager, it's very likely your grey matter is taking more of a beating. Watching our children go through adolescence is a very trying time. Homework, friends, peer-pressure...it's all a lot to handle when you are a teen. And that's without even considering the L word. LOVE. True love, young love, being in love, most of it is intensely felt for a short time. Matters of the Heart. Grey Matters, Matters of Fact. These are all very important matters. 

As parents, we sometimes need to be reminded that we were once like our children. They can be so challenging at every stage that we forget about the rewards of parenting and focus strictly on the parts that drive us crazy. And to be sure, going crazy is where I can often be found. The nice part about going crazy is that the way back from going crazy is filled with wine. It's frequently a necessary part of the journey when trying to find your way back from going crazy. I'm quite positive that names such as Apothic, Arrogant Frog, Flip Flop, and Double Dog Dare, to name just a few,  were all a result of the creative genius of people all coming back from a "gone crazy" type journey. 

Aside from wine, you will need other tools to arrive safely through to the other side....commonly known as adulthood. If you can summon from within, using both your heart and your grey matter, the patience and understanding needed, you can survive your teen's very important and necessary passage into adulthood. You can offer to listen, when they choose to talk. You can offer guidance...when they choose to listen. You can offer a hug when their hear is broken. You can offer money....cause you know for darn sure that it will be accepted! 

Our brains don't prepare us for raising teens, thankfully that is why we have wine. Like a roller coaster ride that is bumpy, curvy, topsy turvy, exciting and scary all at the same time, so is life with a teenager. Having the wine along for the ride just makes it that much more bearable. So stock up your wine cellar and strap on your corkscrew because in the end, it's not where you end up, it's the adventures along that way that really matter. 

Of course we all know it's really the wine that matters, but we're trying to be good parents here......pass the wine please!