Parenting a teen

My friend is coming over, he said.

Please:

He doesn’t know how weird you are

Remember

This impression he will form

is what he’ll keep.

So hard to be a teen with parents

who might dance in the kitchen

while making dinner

or laugh out loud

or even kiss

So mortifying

They don’t realize

how to be props

nondescript

acceptable

like all the other parents that he knows

Me - I hope that as he grows

he comes to see

To dance in your own kitchen

and to be

as jubilant or goofy as you feel

Gives others, too, permission 

to be real.

©Wendy Mulhern

November 10, 2011