by Walt Mueller
*This article originally appeared in Living With Teenagers magazine.

It took the Fonz to show me how hopelessly out of touch my mother was with the real world. You remember Happy Days don’t you? Barely into puberty ourselves, my brother and I squirmed with embarrassment while watching Fonzie help Richie Cunningham hide his first hickey from his parents. Our mom was in the room with us. Our nervous adolescent snickers turned to hysteria, however, when my mom naively asked, “What’s the big deal? Isn’t a hickey just a pimple?”

The chasm between adults and an apparently alien youth culture is very real. A few years ago, I was driving a van full of junior high students to a church function. While sitting at a stoplight, I noticed the older couple in the car next to us looking with curiosity and mild contempt at my cargo. A quick glance over my shoulder confirmed my suspicions. The kids were acting like kids. Granted, while their behavior could easily have been construed as immature, socially unacceptable, borderline criminal, and flat-out disgusting, they were really just being “normal.” While the woman shook her head in repulsion, her husband prepared to speed away from us as soon as the light turned green. I couldn’t resist. I rolled down my window, looked at the woman, shook my head with disgust while pointing back over my shoulder, and said, “Teenagers!”

Read the rest of this article on the CPYU.org website by clicking here.