Hanging out with someone else's teenager!

Sounds like a bad idea or maybe comes across as inappropriate, but I am sticking with that title!

Lady A's daughter, who is 2 years and 2 months and 8 days older than ASid, has been back from Waterloo for a few weeks now. I had the pleasure of going out for lunch with her and her mom a couple of weeks ago.

This is a teen I have known since she was 13 and now, she is almost 19! And she has come a long way. There was a time Lady A would complain about her and now, there is literally nothing to complain about. In fact, I am sure there was a time the teenager complained about her mom as well. When I lunched with them recently, it was wonderful to see how much they were enjoying each other's company. Maybe that is what needs to happen for parents and children to truly appreciate each other - spend some time away from each other!

Today, I spent about 2 hours with the teen. She wanted to visit with her teachers and her co-op class students at Hans’ school. I was happy to accompany her and spend time with her. The teachers were pleased to see her and the kids were overjoyed. There were so many questions she had to answer. One happy answer was that Math is temporary! Lady A's daughter struggled with Math through high school and now, she is Math free and on the Dean's List. Watching her interact with everyone at the school where she started her educational journey, I felt like a proud Aunty!

After the visit, while we were chatting and she was thanking me for accompanying her, I realized that Craigley was working from home and I completely forgot about his lunch! Then I told the teenager how Craigley thinks I am "too social" and how I think he is "antisocial". She was amused at how I said antisocial, but she was quick to remark that I was just the right amount of social!

Validation from teenagers is awesome. It was wonderful to hear a teenager appreciate her mom and her mom’s friend. This generation is supposed to be immersed in social media and somewhat out of touch with reality; but I saw the opposite. Here was an amazing 18 year old who took the time to visit with her teachers and her co-op students and had a real "face time".

I was just fortunate to have been in the right company, at the right time and in the right place. I hope ASid and Hans take the time to go back and visit with people who started them off on their incredible journeys. I really hope so.