HI Family, It's been a looong time since anyone has written here.  I'm going to try an start writing here  again, as I really prefer this format to facebook.  I would love it if all of you would post updates on how things are going in your life. 

It seems like so much has changed in the past few years in the Laylock household.  We now have two teenagers in the house.  Teenagers have really changed the dynamics in our family.  It's fun to be around them, and you can have and intelligent conversation with them.   But they are still kids, and now more than ever they need guidance.  It's not the easy stuff anymore,  like don't cross the street before you look both ways.  That's easy, it's clearly the right thing to do.   Now it's decisions, like appropriate curfews, duel enrollment, dating.  And they can come up with a pretty convincing argument these days.   And I do second guess myself.  Did I make the right decision, am I being to protective?  Too lenient?  So I have to remind myself that God has given me the grace I need to parent these children, and I need to trust my own judgement.  The decisions that other parents make for their children might not be the right decisions for my children, even though they worked out great for someone else.  So I'll give an example, and then I'll move on.

Last week when I picked Ellie up from Youth Group at our church on Sunday night and she asked to drive home. She has her learners permit, and has driven a few times from church, but always during the day.  So my response was, "no, you aren't ready to drive home in the dark".  To which she countered with"c'mon Mom, I've been practicing, and it'll be fine", and her friends chime in to support her, "she's got to drive in the dark sometime, it'll be fine". So I let her drive home, against my better judgement.  And about halfway home, she needed to change lanes.  Maybe she looked over her shoulder a bit too long, or maybe she didn't judge the distance to the car in front of her accurately in the dark.  But she rear-ended the truck in front of her, and totaled her first car.   And the lesson that I learned that night was that I need to listen to my gut, and not let my kids convince me to change a decision.  And looking back, I can see countless examples of times I've made a decision, only to change my mind, and later regret it. 

And  now the kids are up and need me, so I"ll have to pick this up another time.