It’s a Great to be 18!

Ahhhhhh, to be 18 again; to be young, carefree and oblivious to the everyday responsibilities of adulthood. I chose my twins as my topic because they are ALWAYS giving new things to think about. Well, they have already added to their already infinite list of "18 year-old wisdom" so now it's my turn to add to my 20 year-old list of "What did they do now".
Autumn had a doctor appointment this afternoon after school. My last words to her before bed last night were "come straight home from school tomorrow so we can make it to your appointment on time". 4:00 p.m. came and went and they were still not home. About 4:15 p.m., (school had already been out for 55 minutes), I received a text. She wanted me to pick her up in Mt. Pleasant. They had called their boyfriends to come to school to pick them up. Mind you, the appointment was in Midland and we don't go through Mt. Pleasant to get there. The steam started rolling out of my head. She knew she was supposed to come home, but she called her boyfriend to pick her up and take her to Mt. Pleasant and then told my husband and me about it after the fact and expected us to come and get her.
My hubby called her first, since he has the calmer head and discussed what had happened. He told her to have the boyfriend bring her home; but he couldn't, he had to work until 9:00 p.m. Uhhhh, What???? If he was working, how did he have the time to drive all the way out here to pick her up? And in his journey, why didn't he just drop her off at home? So we missed the appointment and they are stuck in Mt. Pleasant with no way home until after their school night curfew.
I called her next. Since this wasn't the first time they had done something like this, I felt it was time to lay down the law. I had to hit her where it hit most; I took away her car privileges. She was livid. How unfair could I be? She can't ride the bus with all those "younger kids"; she's a senior!! Next she tried to use the "then I'm going to find somewhere else to live" card. I wished her luck, told her I would be shutting her cell phone off and keeping her car. She has no job and doesn't make much effort to get one, so these are unnecessary expenses. My last words before I hung up were "find a ride home."
I called Summer to talk about the incident and she had told her that I "kicked both of them out of the house". Uhhhhh, okay, when did I say that? Summer wasn't even part of the conversation. I straightened things out with her and confirmed that they would find a ride home.
So, after all of this banter comes my question. What happens to the brain of teenagers? Is it disabled by all those teen hormones floating around in there? Does it just completely shut down between the ages of 15 through 22? We are trying to teach them that every action has a consequence and they need to think through their decisions but it seems as though that message just doesn't get through. If I had talked like that to my parents when I was her age, I would have found my suitcase packed for me on the front porch. What happened to just plain old "respecting your elders"? Did that concept die back in the day of the dinosaurs (yup, I'm one of those)? And what is the deal with using the "I'm 18" line? Not a good thing to use against the one paying all the bills.
So life goes on; another day, another battle to fight. I have come to one realization after living through these teen years though. God gave us those beautiful, helpless little babies to care for and nurture. He made them so adorable that you HAD to love them. Then he turns them into something other than human beings when they get older and it is time for them to be on their own; if he didn't we would never let them go…..