Oy, this thread scares me, because my daughter is 15, and about to hit the age that I was when I started giving my mother all her grey hairs! I think back to stuff I did as a teen, and wonder how I'll deal with it if and when my daughter does it! Yes, I remember being a lazy, argumentative, self-centered, totally unmotivated lump of annoyance when I was in high school, but somehow the DNA will have changed and my daughter will NEVER be that way - she'll take after my absolutely perfect husband (well, at least as HE remembers himself).

Things I did: Eventually refused to go to school, and just slept in every morning until my mom would come and whack the bed with a broomstick to try and get me up........Asked if I could take her car to my job (6 miles away), and instead took it about 125 miles north to see my "boyfriend" who had moved away (mom being a smart one, she had written down the mileage before I left - I never drove her car again!).....................Got really mad at her and told her I was moving in with my aunt (her sister), and then asked for the keys to her car so I could take my stuff over there; then a few months later, wanted to move back home but told her she would have to change some of her behaviors before I would (where did I get this chutzpah from??)...............had a good old time at home while mom was working 3rd shift - as long as my dates left by 6 AM, I was safe (until the downstairs neighbors ratted me out ).........

I had a fairly dysfunctional family life though, with mom being bipolar and very bitterly divorced, so I probably did a lot of those things to get attention and act out. My daughter and I seem to have a pretty good relationship already, and we can talk about things that my mother would NEVER have discussed with me. I'm also way more affectionate with my daughter than my mom was with me - I only got hugged when I was getting on a plane or something, never just because. My mom even told me once that I hugged and kissed my own daughter too much, and she was going to turn into a lesbian - at first I thought she was joking but she was dead serious! (And even if she did, so what?) So I'm hoping for the best, but mentally preparing myself for the worst of the teenage years.........

I really have not become like my mother in any way; she's a liberal Democrat, and I think I'm a conservative Republican (I'm not really sure what the symptoms are, but my sister says I am ), she believes in aliens and UFO's, and I don't; she's generally on another planet altogether and I'm very sensible, practical, and responsible. And I got my sense of humor and optimism from my dad, who's always in a good mood! (No wonder they got divorced!)