Savvy fourteen-year-olds

It turns out that fourteen-year-olds aren't as dumb as I thought they were, at least not in the ways I wish they were.  (They're still dumb in plenty of other ways.)  Tanner is driving me nuts with how much he understands about what's going on.  I keep reading about how I'm supposed to be really careful about maintaining strict parent-child boundaries throughout this whole process, but he's sometimes too aware of things for me to keep those boundaries intact.

He was looking at the bulletin as we were sitting in church on Sunday.  He elbowed me and pointed with excitement to a couple of items on the back of the bulletin.  "Dad!  Look!  There are some activities for singles that you should check out!"  Of all the conversations I've imagined, I have to say that I never envisioned the conversation in which my fourteen-year-old son would be trying to get me out of the house more often.  I quickly shushed him and diverted his attention to something else.  Sheesh!  The last thing I need is for Tanner to start planning my social life.

(For the record, I'm still married right now.  Even if that weren't the case, the entire Wood family has implemented a strict no-dating policy that won't be lifted until somewhere around the year 2065.  I figure the kids should be sufficiently mature to start dating by then.  I'm assuming I won't be in any condition to date at that point.)

Last night, Stace was at the house making dinner.  We needed to talk over a few issues about visitation and the divorce and such.  It was nothing contentious, but it wasn't a conversation for the kids.  Tanner was downstairs with us and wanted to play his PlayStation for a little while before dinner.  We told him that he could stay there but that he needed to put on his headphones, supposedly so we wouldn't hear the noise from his PlayStation.  He wasn't fooled.  He said that he knew we just wanted to talk about stuff that we didn't want him to hear.  He agreed, though, and he put on his headphones with a cocky smirk, pleased that he'd figured us out.

It's easy to keep Lindsey in her little bubble where she's not aware of any of this, but Tanner is too dang smart for his own good.  I may have to lock him in his room from time to time.