I was very worried about my son becoming a teenager. Jason, who is now 14, is very much into things that normal teenagers appreciate. I must say though, many of the issues we dealt with when he was younger went away as he grew older. Brushing his hair was always a chore. Now however, he makes sure his is neatly groomed before he heads off to school where the cute girls are. I use to pull his filthy clothes off him so he wouldn't smell. Now I can hardly keep up with his laundry as he insists on changing 2-3 times daily.
I know we have a long road ahead of us. But I have learned to use his teenage interests for better behavior and proper lifestyle changes.

My son is into the gel, expensive cologne, clean shoes, etc. I have to admit though .. he looks really handsome when he leaves the house. He asks me often how he looks. There was a time we had to hold him down while we got his hair cut. Now he asks all the time for a 'trim' .. and 'shave' the back of his neck so it looks 'clean.' Imagine that.

lol I still do the verbal checklist with the boys anytime we go somewhere and now they groan and say we're not babies but it's funny how when I start the checklist they run for the bathroom lol!!! They are almost 17 and still not really interested in girls lol but that's ok they can just wait as long on that as they need to!

That's great! I'm glad Jason is so interested in grooming. Daniel does not understand why we want him to use toothpaste when he brushes his teeth. Fortunately, he's interested in girls, so we can say, "Girls like it when boys use toothpaste." Well, parenting's a work in progress!