My oldest daughter will be 15 in less than 3 weeks. Everyone thinks she is a clone of me in appearance and personality. Everyone except her. I can’t blame her. No teenage girl wants to be told that they look like their middle aged mother. No teenager wants to hear that they act exactly like the person who annoys them more than anyone else in the world. I know in my head that her goal is to be different from me, but in my heart it feels like she is just trying to be as annoying and irritating as humanly possible. Last weekend I took her to a store to use a gift card that was burning a hole in her pocket. If I commented positively about something in the store, the item was immediately toxic. Once she no longer was able to get a positive opinion from me, she set about getting negative opinions from me. I made the mistake of using my veto power when she wanted to buy a pair of little boy’s shorts for herself. The shorts were built for a no-hip, no booty guy and on her curves they looked beyond ridiculous. The shorts battle escalated until Doug was called over for mediation. He tried valiantly to bring us to a compromise, but neither side was willing to give an inch. She ended up getting a small purse and refused to speak to me for the remainder of the day. She left the next morning for a week of camp. She called that evening. “I spent all my money on a pair of shorts from the gift shop.”