I have 3 boys, now 31, 27 and 23...perfectly wonderful, nice, normal human beings - this was not always the case. I figured out when the first one was in the 11-12 year range that the reason God starts you off with an infant...tiny, cuddly, cute, smells good, totally makes you fall in love - is that if he started you out with a 12 to 18 year old, you would never have another and the human species would have died out.... AND if they didn't turn into the 'terrible teens' and stayed cuddly, cute, etc. you would NEVER want them to leave. (I remember sitting in the middle of the floor playing with them when they were ages 0-7, wondering how I was going to bear it when they left home, then 12 happened, what a moment of clarity!) It's a pretty good plan really. LOL