I wish I could have read the article “Beautiful Brains” two weeks ago, before I had a very relevant conversation with my sister in law about her 14 year old child. Our kids are very close as cousins and in ages, but the fact that my older child is two years younger than hers, and that they are both boys, it really makes me have this spectator’s view towards everything she narrates descriptively about her teenage boy. She usually thinks I’m just listening and sympathizing with her, when I’m actually listening and terrifying myself with what may come my way.

So Andrea (that’s my sister in law) told me that her 14 year (Carlos) got home after finishing a project with some classmates, completely drunk on beer, or so he said. She was appalled to say the least and did exactly what she thought was right, and what her dad did to her brothers, which was to yell at him for a good period of time, make him take a cold shower and wake him up insanely early to help her with the family business (until he was pale and desperately asking for a dark soda), then took all cellphone privileges away for a month and forbid him any outing plans with friends that were not school related indefinitely.
It’s a bit clearer now. Carlos (my nephew in law) knew what he was doing, he knew perfectly the risk he was taking and the level of stupidity behind it was quite clear. He chose to take the risk of drinking with his buddies, because the reward with dreamy brown eyes said it was OK and offered to walk him home safely since she lived in the same building as he does. Carlo’s reflections in a more reasonable conversation with mom were impeccable, he knew he had it coming. However that kiss on the cheek he got the following Monday from Sarita, was all he needed to weight out risk vs. reward.
I called Andrea a few days ago to let her know my discovery: — It’s OK, you know? His brain is actually “undergoing extensive remodeling.” (Dobs, 2011, p:2)