1 Lol...I was like that, and probably will be again soon, but I am still traumatized from last week. And that has suddenly made me want to get married and have kids right away...like yesterday wouldn't be too soon! The trick is to tell yourself the little lie that all parents do: your kids will be different...and in your eyes they will!

2 Sarah, You just explained why I'm not burning to have children. calivalleygirl, After facing death, the instinct to produce life kicks in. "The trick is to tell yourself the little lie that all parents do" I don't think some parents are even sophisticated enough to lie to themselves. They are little more than sperm and egg-making machines. Is it any wonder that their offspring turn out so messed up - and that people like Sarah have to clean up the mess (but not for long in Sarah's case, thank god). Besides, a lie is still a lie. "Nobody stays here [in Galt's Gulch] by faking reality in any manner whatever." - Ayn Rand, ATLAS SHRUGGED

3 Sarah, All 7th graders are jerks, mine included. When they turn 11 or 12 aliens steal your wonderful child and leave in her/his place a hormonal monster that looks exactly like your child but behaves like a psychotic lunatic. Thank goodness it only lasts for a few years and parents and children all survive it. My oldest is now 21, recently married and has turned into a person that I really like. My youngest is 9 and I am beginning to see the start of the madness. There are twelve years between my two so my husband and I have had time to recuperate from the first before it starts again. If I had it to do over, even knowing about puberty, I would still have my two girls. Because there is one consulation...one day they too will have hormonal teenagers and I will live to see it:-) If you have the oportunity find some of Erma Bombecks books. She made child rearing even through puberty funny. P.

4 hee hee, don't judge all kids by 7th grade. Almost all kids are jerks at that age. They are just starting to think they are adults. One of the worst times I ever had was a Sunday school teacher of 6th grade boys...yuck. I've got a brady bunch of my own and in spite of hardships, occasianal jerkiness and trauma, I would not trade it for the world. BOttom line, if you are a good person you should duplicate yourself, you gotta counter the idiots having children to balance out the world!

5 I had 2 boys going thru those years together. I never noticed the "jerkiness" in them or I have selective memory. But then again you married one of those boys, and he turned out to be a pretty special young man. My sons use to tell me how lucky I was to have them as sons especially during those years. I completely agree!! So you never know you might be as lucky as me. Your Mother-in-law

6 Boys that age are "just beginning to smell themselves" as I was once told. As apt a description as I can come up with.

7 Don't worry about it! We have two boys, a two year-old and a four month-old. They are the best thing that has ever happened to us. Both boys are extremely...assertive. Our oldest has taken to emitting these blood-curdling shrieks lately. On every occasion. When he gets up in the morning, when he is eating lunch, when we are at the mall... Before that it was biting. Then pinching. (You'd be surprised how much loose skin is on your neck and available for pinching...) Our youngest, at four months, is too young to do these things yet. But we see them coming, with even greater intensity. He is normally a pretty tranquil kid, but you've never seen anyone fly into such a berserk rage. When he was born even the doctor commented on it. He puts his whole body into it and he screams instead of cries. It's like he is Samson pushing against the pillars to bring down the temple. I have no doubt that our kids will be jerks in the 7th grade. But that's okay. We love them anyway. There is nothing better than having kids, even when they are jerks.

8 Sarah - you are going thru what I went thru with my very first teaching job only I had 8th graders. It's the age, it will pass - my only advice is to go up or down for the grade you teach. lol