Good Buy: The Agony and The Agony

A mixture of dread and hope.  That is what I felt all the while I was reading Ms. Betty Londergan’s book “The Agony and The Agony”.  As a parent of a 14-year old daughter and a 13-year old son, I am certainly in the throes of the agony of parenting teenagers.  They drive me up the wall.  They drive me nuts.  Sometimes they drive me to drive to the nearest bookstore cafe, where I can soothe my feelings with latte and chocolate cake while getting lost in a suspense novel.

In the introductory part of the book, Ms. Londergan mentioned that raising teens isn’t funny, so much so that she thought it was time for a funny book on the subject.  She certainly has  a great sense of humor.  However, I felt that the earlier chapters of the book were too focused on being funny that I equated it to watching a parenting seminar on Saturday Night Live.  I also didn’t care much for the flippant references to coping with the parenting issues by drinking alcohol.

Halfway through, Ms. Londergan toned the humor down a bit and her insight on the issues facing the parents of today’s teens really shine through.  From filthy mouths to smelly mouths, outright hostility to manipulative sweetness, hilarity to depression, underachievement to overachievement and from partying to sleeping all day, the book covers a wide spectrum of teen behaviors that cause parental angst.  Post-Teen views shared in the book put issues into perspective, and the book gives parents hope that this phase will pass.

Fast-paced, funny, insightful and frighteningly true, this is a must-read for parents and guardians of tweens and teens.