For parents who have compliant children, parenting is easy.  But all kids don't come that way.  Jon was easy.  Scott was a handful.  Ken left for Viet Nam when Scott was three years old, Becky was seven and Pat was nine.  I have always been grateful that I had the girls first.  One of them could keep an eye on Scott for me.  While Ken was gone, one of us girls tailed Scott almost all the time.  But even at home, he found his way into trouble.

One day, I kept hearing the garage door going up and down.  Over and over again.  So I went to check and see what was the matter.  Scott was pushing the garage door opener switch, grabbing the handle and riding it up to the ceiling as it opened--then dropping to the floor and doing it all over again.  I hadn't told him not to do that.  Another one of those things I didn't tell him not to do.  An inventive mind in an energetic body is a bad combination.

Jonathan, on the other hand was a quiet child.  He never got into trouble.  He never did stupid stuff.  If I had only had the girls and Jon--and never had Scott, I probably would have thought I was an excellent mother.  But as it was, I was always behind the curve.  Scott was always ahead of me and I never did catch up.

Everyone should have a child like that to raise.  It cures you of smugness.  They are smarter than you.  Quicker, more inventive. It wasn't that he was bad, just that he wanted to live his life like he was the star in an action movie.  Always on the go.  Always in motion.  Always planning the next adventure.

One day, when he had just turned sixteen, his granddad gave him their old car.  I laid down the rules--which were easy.  Nothing stupid.  But you know how it is, there was a hill in the city park that if you were going fast enough when you topped it, you were airborne.  Yes, he tried it.  It was only a few blocks from our house,  and when he walked in the back door, there I was, with my hand out.  "Whacha want, Mom," he said.   I told him.  "Your keys."  The lady that lived by the hill had called me and told me what he had done almost before his car hit the pavement.  Scott's reaction:  "I can't get away with anything in this town.  Everybody knows me."  That was true.  You can see why.  I think I should get a star in my crown when I get to heaven for "Supreme mother."  He wore me out.