Moooom

Caroline seems to be in the thick of teendom. A couple of weeks ago, we had a heated discussion about how she could improve her grades. We spent the day snarling at each other. By the time evening rolled around, it was time to go meet my mother for a concert.My mom wanted Caroline to come see her friend's band play. She wanted Caroline to see the drummer, especially. At that point the last thing I wanted to do was spend 1 1/2 hours in the car with Caroline and her ever changing emotions jumping around the car. I didn't want to disappoint my mom, so we went. Big surprise Caroline pinged all over the car, laughing one minute, grumbling the next, changing the station, generally driving me crazy. All that I could think is that I was dragging my cranky pop music loving daughter to a folk concert. It turned out to be an amazing concert. I was expecting my mom's friend to play the hand drums. Instead she played with a full drum kit! She played with such force and passion, they had to put a plastic barrier around her. Caroline smiled and was thrilled. During the intermission, we met her daughter. Her daughter has a developmental disability. She was delighted to meet Caroline. She wanted to talk with Caroline about music, she loves Justin Beiber, Caroline not so much, but she went gamely along. At first Caroline seemed to feel awkward, but I tried to steer the conversation to common interests like T.V. They found common ground on their own. Her daughter started complaining about her mother, and sure enough Caroline jumps in with an "I know right?" I guess their are no boundaries when it comes to being annoyed by your mother.