Three years later, I’m writing my first nonfiction book, How To Keep Your Daughter From Slamming the Door: An Awesome Mom Handbook, which will be out later this year. I considered my newest gem to be a complete departure from my previous YA books… or, so I thought until today when my comments to my fiction fan created an echo in my head.
Here’s the thing: If you use a product to clear up your skin when your zits are trying to tell you something is wrong, that problem remains. It grows and festers inside you unchecked. When your face breaks out again, and you need to get a stronger product, the unidentified problem keeps growing inside you.
The “Do As I Say, Not As I Do” philosophy does not work. It only serves to teach her that you don’t actually believe in the “Do As I Say” part. What you Say and Do ALWAYS matters. If she sees you living a lie, her trust in you suffers.
That, my friends, is the core of teen angst.
I had kinda pictured this moment of intimacy differently. In the movies, pivotal moments such as The First Kiss Moment usually involved some sort of touching; you know, a cuddle, an arm draped over my shoulder, or at least hand-holding. They hardly ever involved scowling over folded arms.
