More...

There will be a continuation to the previous post. I had a LONG conversation with Salamander last night (when I came back downstairs last nite from putting Potatey to bed, I caught Salamander watching a very inappropriate program on TV on a channel that he KNOWS he can't select. And when I confronted him about this, he LIED to me about it. He has never done anything like this before...And yes, he is going to be loosing TV privileges for a few nights).

I don't have time to summarize all right now, but part of his struggle is that he desperately wants to be 'popular and have lots of friends'. Problem is that he picked a few 'trouble makers' to emulate, and has starting copying their behaviors and attitudes to get noticed by the other kids. And while I agree that these particular 'popular' kids may be getting a lot of attention from the other kids and from the school staff, as Salamander was able to reason out on his own as we were talking, this is NOT the kind of attention you want. And he realizes that he needs help in making good and smart choices. He said: "It's hard to be me, as only a few kids want to be with me when I'm just me. Lots more kids want to be with me when I act like the popular kids."

Oy, I have no easy answers for him as to why you get more attention when you act like a jerk. Nor do I have an easy solution for him on how to balance between wanting to be popular and staying true to yourself.

Welcome to the teenage years... They are not going to be easy...