My 16 year old wears zoot suits and has Elvis hair and Elvis sideburns. I frankly think he's very cool. :-) Nuts...but cool.

I agree that a zoot suit and elvis hair and sideburns are cool. Only because they are so nuts as to be off the nut track.

Your better off staying at home with the 12 and 12 sometimes.

I can see why you and Lileks go so well together. You just...mesh. One spins one way and one spins the other way.
Another perpetual myth about children is their unspoiled honesty and lack of malice. When they would happily put you in the ground to get another cookie.

Proper child-rearing is more about civilizing a wild animal than teaching skills.

As I get older, I find I'm developing a natural defense against this "in one ear and right back out" business: thick bushy ear hair that stops everything, including sound. I may even leave it.

My son and his immediate group of friends are far more sensible than I was at his age. . .and I wasn't particularly "out there" when I was a young teen. My peers (early 1970's) almost all seemed to be doing drugs, getting laid, and getting into scrapes with the law. Not everyone, certainly, but a significant number.

I have to admit that, as a parent, I'm much more comfortable dealing with the kids today than I would have been trying to deal with my own generation as teens.

Wow, Nicholas. You have absolutely no idea what's going on then. I suggest you find some ADULTS who've been forced to pull their heads out of the sand due to the shocking realization(s) of what their mainstream kids have been up to. There are two things that distinguish this generation from that of its parents: 1) there are no obvious "signs" that a child's in trouble (contrast that with the hippy 60s) and 2) the trouble kids can get into today can take your child from sweet baby to addicted thug - or worse, dead - in two weeks rather than the two years it took in the 60s.

Parents today get less warning, less time to assess, and less time to react than any previous generation. Don't ever think "all is well," check day-by-day.

Zoot suits, "Elvis hair," and sideburns are cool? You are the problem, dude.

Actually, an untuned sense of humor is much more often the problem than Elvis hair. I agree with the fact that there are often no obvious signs of trouble, but a light touch in other things is often a help.

Whoa, now that's a screed. Most of which I agree with. My kids DO have to worry about their dad coming home.

Actually, most parents are probably correct in thinking that their kids are doing all right— at least, most of the parents I know, who actually bother to interact with their kids. (As a young adult, I am often accessible to both parties.)

Sure, kids can get into serious trouble nowadays, but while opportunity is boundless these days, the underlying personality to withstand bad temptation can be and is still instilled in many kids.

Which does not prevent their insanity.