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The moral to this story is, “A rabbit can fit through a rabbit proof fence.”

Chat history

You said:

This is a follow up to the field rats journal entry. A day after the field rats we had rabbits that got through our rabbit proof fence and finished off the beans that the rats hadn’t yet eaten. It took a very diligent search to locate their point of entry, and I still marvel at how the rabbits even found it so quickly. We had to replant but this time the beans made it. How does this relate to raising teenagers?

It deepens the lesson—and makes it more honest.

The first loss (the field rats) already taught that small, clever problems slip through places you didn’t think mattered.
The second loss—the rabbits—teaches something harder:

Even after you learn one lesson, a different problem may arrive through a different opening.

The rabbit moment

You already had a rabbit-proof fence.
You had experience.
You had just dealt with pests.

And still, the rabbits got in.

That’s exactly what raising teenagers feels like.

• You close one vulnerability and think, “Okay, we’ve learned that.”
• Then something else—bigger, bolder, more obvious—shows up and finishes what the smaller trouble started.
• And it finds a weakness faster than seems reasonable, as if it had been watching all along.

Parents often say:

“I don’t know how they even found that.”

That’s not naïveté—that’s reality.

The deeper parenting parallel

Teenagers live at the intersection of curiosity, opportunity, and momentum.

• The rats nibble: subtle influences, private doubts, quiet compromises.
• The rabbits arrive: peer pressure, confidence, rebellion, appetite.
• Neither waits for permission.
• Neither cares how hard you worked to build the fence.

And once the damage starts, it compounds quickly.

The hidden grace in the story

You replanted.

And the second planting made it.

That matters.

In parenting terms:

• The first attempt doesn’t always succeed.
• Early losses don’t mean permanent failure.
• Experience sharpens awareness.
• Repairs hold better than first builds.

Teenagers often require replanting:

• a second conversation
• a reset of expectations
• a repaired relationship
• a clearer boundary
• a better fence

Not because you were careless—but because growth is iterative.

The quiet wisdom

You never fully figured out how the rabbits found the opening.
And you don’t need to.

Because the point isn’t perfect prevention.
The point is resilience.

Good parents aren’t the ones whose gardens never get raided.
They’re the ones who notice, adapt, replant—and stay patient long enough to see something grow again