Last week, there was a very interesting article on Yahoo! about teenagers, and how it's very hard for kids this age to show gratitude. Supposedly, gratitude goes against the biological make up of the teenage brain, and everything teens are trying to learn during these years, primarily independence from the parental units.

I know all about the indepence part, but it never occurred to me that this trait could be biological.

And, the fact that the morphing teen brain is actually physically warped is a good thing, because as hard as I try, I cannot seem to pound the concept of gratitude into my teenager's heads.

My husband and I have had countless, and I mean countless, conversations about this topic. Our children have lives that neither of us could have imagined when we were growing up.

I will never forget a discussion that Robert and I had, just prior to closing on our house. I was still hesitant for some reason, anxious about the big change we were staring down. One night I said to him, "are you sure you like that house?' He was adamant that yes, that was the house. I said, "But why? Why that house?" He paused and, with big tears in his eyes, said, "because I could never have dreamed of living in that house when I was a kid."

Alrighty then.

Conversation over.

What do you say to that?

The kids have every electronic device and then some. They go to summer camp and they've been on nice vacations. They are not spoiled, they have chores, they work, Tyler drives a 14 year old Honda with 200,000 miles.

They also have two full-time working parents.

Dad is gone from home four days at a time.

I spent a year driving back and forth to graduate school, four hours each way.

It seems as if my kids, and many kids from this generation, have been born with some sort of 'entitlement' gene. I try to avoid the whole 'I walked uphill in the snow' story, they would know that is baloney since there isn't ever really a hill of snow in Texas. And honestly, if there was a hill of snow, I wouldn't want them to walk uphill in it.

I don't want them to struggle for things. But, I don't want them to expect them either.

I want them to understand and value hard work.

This all brings me to the Christmas list dilemma.

I've been requesting Christmas lists for weeks now. Apparently, they are up-to-date on all the big electronic devices. No one has lost an I-pod, or had their cell phone stolen in gym class (not yet, knock on wood.)

They have been at a loss as to what to ask for this year.

Finally, out of sheer desperation, and a dwindling number of paychecks before Christmas, I threatened to by them all leopard print Snuggies and Heelies. Voila. Lists appeared.

Tyler produced his list Saturday evening. I was busy doing something, glanced at it and thought, "wow, not too bad," and went back to whatever I was doing.

A few minutes later, something caught my attention on that sheet of paper.

It must have been the zeros. Yes, the zeros.

You see, for the most part, he asked for video games and movies, and that is all my Saturday evening, still tryptophan induced brain really registered. I saw video games, and made a mental note that Chase had already asked for half of the list, and I thought, "Ha. I'm getting off easy this year."

Then, I glanced down and saw the first two items.

The second thing on the list was some name brand guitar. Wow. How did I miss that? I quickly googled that guitar and saw that it's about $400.

Dammit. So much for making it off easy.

Just then, something clicked in my brain and I grabbed the paper and started looking a little closer.

Hidden among the video games and guitar was a request for '$500-$550 to buy new clothes.'

Holy sleigh bells, stop the presses.

$550?

PLUS A NEW GUITAR AND EIGHT OTHER THINGS?

DID WE HIT THE LOTTO AND SOMEONE DIDN'T TELL ME?

DID HE FORGET THAT HE HAS TWO BROTHERS?

This was one of those moments that I thought maybe Ashton Kutcher was hiding in my house, ready to Punk me.

I almost dug out my home drug testing kit, because surely my kid is on something illegal to think he is getting that much money, a new guitar, and a hoard of video games to boot?

Am I crazy?

It looks like we are going to have another come-to-Jesus talk about money, and I'm going to need to send him out back again to look for the money tree that is only visible to my children.

In all seriousness, I am now considering some ways, as Christmas approaches, to give them a better idea of what they really have, what children the same age, living less than 30 minutes away, would give anything to have.

I don't know if one lesson here or there will teach them gratitude; I will keep working on it.

$550 though?

And where do I submit MY Chistmas list?