My Teenage Werewolf Excerpt
Meanwhile, the husband, the father, tethered between wife and daughter, two of the three most important women in his life (let’s not forget his mother), is playing way out of his league. He hates the non-stop drama. He doesn’t understand the turmoil that domestic life has turned into. He sees his wife in one of her least flattering roles, and doesn’t like what he sees. They clash over issues neither of them knew they had.
And even if it is “just a phase,” there is a school of thought that says it is an extraordinarily important phase that deserves as much attention as you can give it. Don’t wait it out. Wade into it – because this particular moment in this all-important relationship can affect every subsequent intimate bond in a young woman’s life. It is here, in the heat and the heart of the mother-daughter dance, that the girl develops the interpersonal skills she will need to stay close (yet separate) from others. It is here she will stretch and strengthen the emotional muscles that she will need to flex later as she makes healthy connections with friends, lovers and mates. At school, if a relationship goes sour, if a friend who used to be close now all of a sudden shuns her — or, in the soap opera that is middle school, stabs her in the back — she can take a deep breath, cry a few tears and move on. At home, if a relationship goes sour, she can’t move on. She has to deal. They both, daughter and mother, have to deal. And that’s good. I mean, theoretically, that’s good. In real life, it’s hell.