Have we raised the most spoiled generation of children in the history of humanity? After ours, of course.

Certainly you need a new laptop, darling, yours is a month old.
Those jeans are pretty shabby after one wash and what, you can’t text Mars on your cell? Poor thing.
 
Bad enough when the teen has normal issues, but when they’re in the clutches of addiction, enabling takes on an entirely new and dangerous meaning: spoiled brat embarrassing you in the mall on a Saturday afternoon versus drug overdose in the emergency room on a Saturday night.

We’re all at the mercy of our own overpowering love, seizing upon the slightest progress as an epiphany — so the new friend has a tattoo of Satan on her forehead, least she has a nice smile — and rewarding that with slavish generosity.

And they know it. Addicts manipulate. Teenage addicts, off the charts. Worn out from this endless war, we appease those emotional terrorists in the bedroom down the hall. Maybe they will leave us alone if we only…

Like the government, we throw money at problems. Yes, that’s worked out real well in Washington.
   
But enabling only feeds their addiction, empowering them with greater leverage while degrading our own authority. What, parents have authority?? Plus, an iPod can be sold for drugs.
 
Then surrender? No, employ tough love — on us.  Rope in all parental instincts and say no. Like Rocky Balboa in Round 15, suck it up for another round. Or 20. Otherwise you’re only hurting them.

But we know why that’s so difficult. It’s really not the exhaustion. It’s because you desperately want them to be like other teens. If only they were brats screaming because we won’t buy them a third pair of shoes.

Sadly, they’re never going to be like other teenagers. They can’t have just one beer. The extra pocket money probably won’t go for snacks. They can’t hang with a party crowd and stay straight. Even when in recovery, the addiction shadow will always stalk them. And you.

Accept it. Parents of teen addicts live by different standards of what merits celebration. Acceptance to a prestigious school or using the extra $10 in their pockets for junk food, not a dime bag. Which required the greater effort, the greater sweat, the more pain? I think I’d opt for that Domino’s special with two toppings any time.