In the same line as noted by Linda from Clarkston, WA, I consider 13 year
olds to be 2-year olds who are bigger.  Example:  At age 2, we insist that
children not cross the street without a hand connected to adult, etc (In
fact, I insisted on this well past two).  At 3 1/2, when Doug decided he
didn't want to live with me anymore and was going to "run away," he came
back in an hour. When I asked him where he went, he said "around the block;
I am not allowed to crsos the street by myself."  Loved those wide innocent
eyes as he calmly stated the rule he had learned so well.

At 13, the rule changed slightly. After coming home from a moose=hunting
trip in Canada with family friends, he informed me that he could now drive
the car (calm my heart!) because he had been allowed to bounce one of the
pick-ups through tree-stump studded meadows in the middle of the woods.  We
compromised. He could drive the car in the driveway, but NOT in the street.


One day, a neighbor called me to ask if I had been having trouble with my
car. He had spotted it going up and down the driveway, but never into the
street. I laughed and told him it was Doug--practicing his driving skills!
:-)

You with small children: see what portends for you?!  :-)



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