Troubled Teens: What to Watch For

I have a 14 year old son. I also have anxiety, depression, stress, crying fits, yelling outbursts, and impulses to strangle others. I'm reasonably convinced that these two statements are related. Like most teens, my son is trying to establish his independence. He doesn't want to fit in with the clean-cut church-loving good-grade-getting group that I want him to be in. Instead, he gravitates towards the Hip-Hop loving, gansta thug types who don't care about school or church. He embraces all other religions except his own. He wears a cross every day and also draws Stars of David on the walls of his room and his school books. He wears his jeans below his butt and is growing his hair long so he can get corn rows. He's fascinated with the West Coast Cryps and has been busted for "tagging" with a marker on school property. Needless to say, I worry about my child. I worry that he doesn't understand that even though he's only 14, the choices he makes now can impact the REST of his life forever!

The other night, Jared was hungry and decided to make a frozen pizza for himself. I peeked in on it to see if it was done and was surprised and delighted to find that my gansta loving thug son had arranged the pepperoni in a smiley face on the pizza. He can pretend to be as "bad" as he wants... he's still the kind of person who makes a smiley face out of pepperoni...and I love him for it.