I knew what I was seeing before I knew what I was seeing. My brain worked hard to protect my mom heart. What is that? Is that a highlighter? I pulled the top off not to expose a highlighter tip, but rather a menthol pack. Oh. OH. 

My fifteen-year-old culprit daughter was in the basement working on a cheer routine. My mind raced as I ticked through options of how best to address this. I sent the photo to her dad and his only response was “That’s not good.” Well, that wasn’t good either – how was I supposed to handle this? Do I tell her I found it while simply setting laundry on her bed? Do I wait to make her confess once she realizes it is gone? Can I just ignore this, go get in my bed, and pretend it didn’t happen? 


You can find more of Angela's writing in her book Patched Up Parenting.