Photo by  RAZmom88

It's hard enough raising one teen -- but three?! Welcome to RAZmom88's wild and wonderful life. Check back every Thursday to find out what drama or joy she encountered this week.

A Choice

Zack, 15, made the choice not to try out for the JV basketball team and instead focus on indoor track. I was a little disappointed because I wanted him to do three sports this year and indoor track is not considered a school sport.

He made the decision so that he could be ready for track season this spring with the hope of making it to state. Last year he was the only underclassman to earn a Varsity letter in track. He also does weight training two nights a week. He explained to me how much pressure he is under to keep his grades up and do so many school activities. He is only going to focus on the ones he is best at.

Photo by SnoWhiteImages

If you or your big kid hate Twilight, just skip right on over this post -- and the like 20 others that the Buzz bloggers and I have written this week. Huge Twilight fans, all of us. We just can't stop thinking and talking about New Moon's premiere today.

Our official Daily Buzz Twilight Reporter got into the Thursday midnight showing -- read her Twilight review (she won't spoil anything) over in Entertainment Buzz. Moms are also sharing why they are so obsessed with the story and the characters.

Click over there to hear what they say. Then come back and tell me if you agree with some of these moms? And is your daughter obsessed for the same reasons you are -- or for a totally different reason?

Help to satisfy my Twilight fascination and tell me!

Photo by  RAZmom88

It's hard enough raising one teen -- but three?! Welcome to RAZmom88's wild and wonderful life. Check back every Thursday to find out what drama or joy she encountered this week.

Fighting Siblings

My teens usually get along fairly well. A few times I've heard name calling, which I hate. They are all my babies and I don't  like when they hurt each other. So on Saturday, Andrea and Zack were really going at each other.

Andrea turned off the video game while Zack was out of the room. He came back and threw a punch at her, and she did a good job of blocking it. I was completely stunned.

Zack went in his room and Andrea in hers. I went in and talked to each of them. Andrea knew Zack would be mad that she turned off the game (it was a football game and it took him hours to get where he was).

Photo by JustinaLynn

Another week and college students everywhere will be taking to car, train and plane to travel home for Thanksgiving break. Or will they? Some kids who attend colleges across the country don't make the trek home for a mere few days -- the expense of the ticket just isn't worth it.

Others might be skipping the tradition at home for the first time to spend it with their new boyfriend or girlfriend's family -- boo-hoo. I remember the first time I missed my family's big turkey event to spend at a boyfriend's house. My mom is still holding that grudge.

But they're growing up -- what can we do?

Photo by Emmy_Dollface

My 6 year old still calls me "Mommy" most of the time, but randomly now he'll stick in the generic "Mom," and I think, wow, that just sounds so grown up.

My 30-something friend still refers to and addresses her mother as "Mommy" and to me it doesn't seem to fit.

My father will sometimes use the term in third person -- "Go ask Mommy what she wants to do about dinner" -- and I guess that sounds okay because he still considers me his little girl, plus it makes me feel young.

Photo by  RAZmom88

It's hard enough raising one teen -- but three?! Welcome to RAZmom88's wild and wonderful life. Check back every Thursday to find out what drama or joy she encountered this week.

Best Buddies

It has been rather quiet around our house in terms of the childrens' behavior and activities, not the actual noise level in our home. This is the house that never sleeps, meaning someone is awake and up in our house at all times.

Ryan was home from college last weekend and it made me think of the relationship between brothers. Ryan, 18, and Zack, 15, spent every night -- all night -- playing video games, watching football, and going on late-night snack runs. The bond between the two of them has been there for as long as I can remember.

If the state of cleanliness in my 4 year old's room at this moment in time is any indication of what I can expect when she's a teen, this clean freak mommy is in big trouble.

Already she changes her outfit about five times a day, but with each wardrobe shift those clothes never make it back into the drawers or the hamper. She also likes to collect teeny things -- plastic jewels, dolls, dogs, coins, beads, stones, leaves -- and has "picnics" or builds "houses" for them all over the floor.

So cleaning her room must be performed more like an archaeological dig than a simple grab-and-toss of the big trucks, spaceships and balls in my son's room. So she moans about cleaning because she says it's "too much work." Well, yah!

Taking extra long showers is one mysterious teen trait. Now I know that having a messy room is another. There's always the exception, but I giggled at how many moms in Answers actually used the same word -- disaster -- to describe their teen's room.

Cyberbullying is the buzz word these days, but let's not forget about the regular, old-fashioned, in-person bullying we knew as kids. It's still happening and one of the many disturbing things about that is that it mostly takes place in the classroom, according to a new study by the American Public Health Association. Not in unsupervised locations. But right under the noses of teachers.

I'm not shocked at this. I have firsthand experience.

This mean boy I'll call Tom Sawyer used to bully me in high school. Anytime I wore a piece of clothing the color red, Tom would call me a "Communist." If you were a teen during the Cold War era, you'd know how hurtful that insult was. Why Tom started doing this IDK. I guess because like all bullies he was a weak jerk and it made him feel good to pick on shy girls.

Photo by  RAZmom88

It's hard enough raising one teen -- but three?! Welcome to RAZmom88's wild and wonderful life. Check back every Thursday to find out what drama or joy she encountered this week.

Alcohol on campus

Ryan, 18, got caught with beer in his dorm room. They made him dump it out and write a letter home. He claims that the beer actually belonged to a 21 year old friend who was visiting, but the rule is no alcohol in the dorms. 

I gave him the whole, "You are in school studying criminal justice, think about your future!" speech. He insists that he is behaving himself. I told him I would give him the benefit of the doubt this time, but one more incident and his car will be taken and parked at home.

This is a serious subject and nothing to laugh at, least of which by the moms of teen girls who are actually trying to get pregnant. All this goes to show in some of the honest gut reactions that moms gave in two recent posts on the subject. Obviously it's a very real issue that's on a lot of moms' minds lately.

Here's how some moms would react if they found out their teen daughters were trying to get pregnant on purpose: