The Hell of Living With Teenagers

I was going to write a piece on the particular hell of living with a house full of teenagers, in particular, teen-aged sons, but I found some blogs online that do a much better job than I ever could:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/book_extracts/article3313443.ece

Ever watch the monkey house at the zoo? Notice that the female chimps sit around in groups, picking the nits off each other, (cooperative living) but the male chimps fling feces at each other? Ever notice that groups of large mammals -lions, elephants, gorillas- only allow one male in the group, but several females? That's because no one can stand more than one young male in your home at a time....groups of them definitely cause trouble. You can extrapolate from this what you wish, but having two teenage sons isn't just about what they do that's difficult to live with.....they bring their friends over each night, two or three or more at a time, and together they move through the kitchen like a plague of locusts- groceries bought to feed this family for a week disappear over night- and leave trash, dirty clothes, video games, cans of Axe and other detritus in their wake. Adolescence is what makes you eager for that little baby you once treasured to head off to college.