Love You Hate You Miss You

I just finished this Elizabeth Scott YA novel. It's Spring Break, so I've had the luxury of starting it this morning in bed and finishing it before lunch. I won't spoil the plot for you, but the novel touches on the Lord-of-the-Flies behavior we know that kids are so good at! They're beasts, and I think the beastliness starts younger and younger. Who knows...preschool probably already has clicques! I'm not saying adults aren't also beastly. We definitely don't grow out of it. It's just that adults have a bit more armor at the ready than do tikes. So, really, this novel spoke to me more as a parent than as a female (victim, I might add, of the beastliness...and occasional disher-outer of the beastliness...maybe more than "occasional," to be honest!). Anyway, the novel spoke to me as a parent because the crisis in Amy's life stems partly/mostly from her parents' absence in her life. They're in Amy's life physically, but they're not there poking, prodding, hovering...all those things that really tick off teens, and yet those things that are vital to warding off as much evil and danger as possible during that time in their lives. It's not a pretty time, and your teens are going to momentarily hate you for monitoring and checking and pestering. And you can't guarantee their safety, but you do your best. And most of the time your teens forgive you later. That's what this novel said to me. It said, "Parents, wake up! You HAVE to make your kids mad to truly be doing your job. Don't take the easy way and tell yourself that a quiet kid is a happy kid, a safe kid. 'Quiet' is an awfully good cover!"