Article October 13, 1986 Issue

Teens and parents and prayer

Adolescence is certainly a time of special challenges for young people. But the teen years don't have to loom ominously.

Judith Ann Hardy

"What's so bad about being a teen-ager today?" our youngsters (one ten, one eleven years old) asked at the dinner table several years ago. At first I wondered what brought that on. Then I remembered they'd heard the same three conversations about teen-agers that I'd heard that day.

The first was in my husband's office, where a new father had announced his daughter's birth. "Just think," a co-worker teased, "in no time she'll be a teen-ager—and dating!" "Don't even mention it!" was his half-teasing, half-serious report.

Then there was the conversation near us on the subway. Eyeing a group of teen-agers, one elderly lady shook her head and said to her companion, "I'm glad I raised mine when I did! It was bad enough then. Can you imagine what it would be like in today's society?"

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