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"  &amp;quot;Only one year until you have a teenager!&amp;quot; people keep reminding me, now that my son is turning 12 this week. And then they let out a dirty little laugh. Nicholas, however, just shrugs.According to conventional wisdom, once my son hits 13, he will either turn into a pot-smoking, graffiti artist who sneaks out of his bedroom at night to tag highway overpasses, or an online bully who posts semi-nude photos that he takes surreptitiously in the boys&amp;#039; (or maybe, girls&amp;#039;) locker room. At least, that&amp;#039;s what people infer with their dirty little laughs. But I wonder how just one year will manage to create such a drastic turn-around of my child, who&amp;#039;d much rather create classical compositions on his tricked-out keyboard or draw comic strips to hand out at school than have anything to do with MySpace or spray paint. Most of all, I wonder if it really will. I like to think that 12 years of good parenting will prevail over the terrible trappings of teenagerdom, but how can I be sure? How do I know that my impromptu parenting talks about the dangers of getting high off the prescription drugs in his friend&amp;#039;s parents&amp;#039; medicine cabinets or the frank discussions about predators on the Internet will sink in? How do I know his hormones won&amp;#039;t override my teachings about the downsides of teen sex? How do I know he won&amp;#039;t decide to sample Ecstasy, raid the liquor cabinet or get in a fist-fight in the middle school hallway? I don&amp;#039;t. I simply don&amp;#039;t. But I have faith that our almost nightly dinners together and our shared giggles over the (Tivoed, clean parts of) Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert gags matter. I have to believe that the boundaries and rules I&amp;#039;ve set for him have a purpose. I have to know that the cumulative effect of our 12 years together mean something...something that will override the tough stuff that may - or may not - lie ahead of us. One of Nick&amp;#039;s birthday cards reads: &amp;quot;Just 525,600 minutes until you&amp;#039;re a teenager!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;And then?&amp;quot; he asked. &amp;quot;Nothing, really,&amp;quot; I answered. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;ll just be 13.&amp;quot; At least, that&amp;#039;s what I&amp;#039;m hoping for. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/parenting/a20602/one-year-to-teen/>