You know your daughter is getting teen-y (16 in May) when she starts telling amusing anecdotes about studying chemistry (and stoichiometry in particular). You also know she’s getting older when, under pressure, she doesn’t mind being flip and stubborn just on principle, when she won’t yield to the forces of logic she applies so clear-mindedly to, for one thing, stoichiometry.
In fairness, Elena, a sophomore, is coming to the end of an intense period of mid-terms, with the last two happening today. To help her squeeze in a bit more sleep time in the morning, I’ve been driving her to school this week. This gives us extra time in the morning to grunt at each other.
During Breakfast
Me: “You didn’t eat any of your fruit?”
Elena: “I don’t have time.”
Me: “You don’t have time to eat a grape?”
Elena: “No.”
On The Way To The Car
Me: “Your shoe lace is untied.”
Elena: “No it’s not.”
Me: “It’s scrapping the floor.”
Elena: “It’s triple laced. What else do you want me to do?”
Me: “Figure it out?”
Driving To School
She’s a capable test-taker, but she’s tired. I share some of the pep-talk chatter I’ve shared ad nauseum over the years about staying alert to the small things, double-checking work if there’s time, etc.
She settles into a groove of testing her Spanish vocabulary, which is a much more practical strategy than listening to my blather.
By the time we arrive at school, the mood is much calmer and friendlier than when we started the morning.
Elena: “You want to hear something funny. Yesterday, I said to a friend: ‘I think I’m finally starting to get stoichiometry.’ And this chemistry teacher heard me say it, and stopped me and said: “Okay, explain it to me.”
Me: “What do you mean? Was it your teacher?”
Elena: “No! It was just one school’s chem teachers.”
Me: “So did you explain it?”
Elena: “I tried.”
Driving Home
I think it was more of a feeling than a thought, a sense that these are the good times, and I’m lucky to have a daughter like her.
Eric Messinger is the editor of New York Family. He can be reached at [email protected]
