Life with a 14 Year Old (6)

As a parent, I’ve come to the conclusion that kids know everything (at least they think they do), kids know things lots sooner than we do (at least it seems that way), and kids want to let us know they know things long before we would have known regardless of their relevance to anything significant that’s going on.  My 14 year old is no different…she thrives on getting the scoop and then quickly broadcasting that scoop to her mom, to me, to her sister, or to anyone else that will listen whether they care or not.

But I have to tell you, it sure is satisfying to me to scoop my 14 year old, especially on something so critically important to her life like the happenings during the off season of the Colorado Avalanche.  I scooped her today.

As usual, first thing this morning, she got up and went on the web to look at the news from the Avalanche.  As with most days, there was no news today, so no broadcast, or screaming down the stairs, or “Dad, guess what?” from her this morning.  As she was out shopping with her mom and her sister though, the Avalanche announced the re-signing of two of their key defensive players to multi-year deals.  I smiled in knowing that she hadn’t seen the news, so I had her scooped, and I was anxious for her to get home for me to say, “guess what?”

About an hour later, she called with a noticeable tinge of excitement in her voice, and she asked, “guess who the Avalanche signed today?”  I paused and said, “uhhh, let me guess, John-Michael Liles and Adam Foote?”  She said, “you already knew!”  Then she spent a couple minutes reliving how she checked the news this morning and there was none, but now there is, and now she’s happy because this is a good move for the Avalanche.

Unfortunately, scooping my 14 year old is a very rare event, and though it feels good at the moment, I’m sure I’ll be back to my typically uninformed and not-with-the-events-of-the-day state by tomorrow.  But I must admit that for the moment it feels good…really good…and maybe just for the moment my 14 year old will think I really care as much as she does about the Avs…which is impossible…and something I really don’t want to ever strive to achieve!

One Response to “Life with a 14 Year Old (6)”

  1. tpak on 30 Jun 2008 at 10:51 pm #

    Hmmm. My guess is she does not think you scooped her b/c you did not immediately text her the info. But there is always next time.