How do you tame a teenager?

I wish I knew. Until a few months ago my son was great. I cannot say I’ve never had any issues with him, but all in all it has always been possible to talk to him and make him see reason. In the last few months instead, that wonderful little boy with blue eyes and a lovely smile has turned into a green-eyed monster who loses his temper all the time, treats our house like a free hotel and expects more and more from us, especially from me. The fact that now he has a girlfriend has made things even worse. She is nice and kind but makes him feel strong and cocky as he knows that there is always someone on his side. It seems that he wants to rejects us, mother, father and sister but cannot and that makes him upset.

He cannot stand his dependence on us. I’m worried about his future. He doesn’t have the slightest idea of what he wants to do in life. He probably hopes he will win the lottery and spend his life in luxury without the need of working. Fat chance! He used to be excellent at school but now he’s lost any interest.

I’ve read somewhere that to tame a teenager you need unconditional love. You need to be firm but avoid arguing and shouting. I’ve tried all this but now I sometimes feel it would be better if I’d stop loving him. Because that way I wouldn’t feel hurt anymore. I've also read that difficult, strong-willed teenagers will likely one day be CEOs or other great leaders. If this is true, my son will soon become the President of the United States (without offense to dear Obama)!

Happiness

The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that one is loved;
loved for oneself, or better yet, loved despite oneself.
Victor Hugo

This my daughter's idea of happiness: holding a little lovely dog in her arms.

And my idea of happiness is just watching her being so happy! Why can things be as simple as a child's smile???

(The little dog is called Bambi by the way. Doesn't he look a bit like a baby deer?)

Not Fireworks

Whilst we were probably enjoying our New Year’s Eve fireworks, the people of Gaza City were witnessing and suffering this kind of flares and smoke.

Israeli military spokesmen deny that their forces have used phosphorus in Gaza, despite photographs and film of munitions showing similar characteristics to the potentially lethal shells.
Phosphorous shells are not illegal if they are used to create a smokescreen or to illuminate targets, rather than as a weapon against people, military experts and human rights campaigners said yesterday.

White phosphorus produces layers of thick white smoke when exposed to oxygen, but phosphorus from an explosion will cause serious burns that can melt flesh to the bone and kill. Its use as an offensive ammunition is banned by the chemical weapons convention. Israel used phosphorus in the war with Lebanon in 2006.

This is 10-year old Palestinian Loay Soboh, who lost his eyes in an Israeli air strike, at Shifa hospital in Gaza before being taken to Saudi Arabia for treatment.

Children make up more than half of Gaza's 1.5 million inhabitants, and as such have found themselves in the firing line since Israel began its offensive against Hamas.

According to recent UN figures, more than 265 children have been killed and over 1,080 wounded.

The war on Gaza is not a natural catastrophe like the Tsunami: this is a man made disaster that deepens while the world watches.

Are we watching? Are we listening? Are we talking about it?

What are we doing?

Crying for the little souls of Gaza

Some days ago five Palestinian sisters were fast asleep when a night-time Israeli airstrike hit the next-door mosque in Gaza. One of the walls collapsed on to their small asbestos-roofed home and they were all killed in their beds. The eldest sister, Tahrir, was 17 years old, the youngest, Jawaher, just four.


I do not usually do politics (and I do not think this is politics either)…but when children, innocent people are slaughtered this way, I cannot keep my mouth shut. A blog should entertain but also express the blogger’s opinion. I do not care who started this conflict, I do not care where the faults lie. THIS HAS TO STOP!


As a mother I feel for every child who has died in the Gaza region. As a Christian, I don't believe Jesus would argue who is right or who is wrong. He would simply weep and state, "Love God and love one another as you love yourself". He would then ask "how are any of you loving me and one another through this violence”.


I feel impotent and angry at my impotence. I look at my children and I feel ashamed because I cannot do anything. I signed a petition at
http://www.avaaz.org/en/gaza_time_for_peace but who really reads petitions? Not our politicians who are too wrapped into themselves and their arguments to listen, not Israel or Hamas who keep on firing missiles and shedding innocent lives in the name of what?


So what else can we do apart from crying and praying for those little souls, those little angels of Gaza?