Connected Through Story

I recently read an article about ways that parents connect to their teenage children. I remember being a teenager, it was rough. My mom grounded me for a month because I skipped school and with as much school as I'd missed, I got off lucky. She said no phone, no friends, to school and to home and that was it. And if I missed a class, that teacher would have caller her. As far as 15 year olds go, I was exceptionally miserable. And because I was miserable, and incredibly bored, I had no choice but to connect to my mom. We became what I call best friends. I had no problem with it at all.
But as I got older we spent less time together. We ended up in different towns after a while. We talked on the phone about our going's on. She'd come to visit me when she visited my other siblings. Everything was fine, but there wasn't the common ground that we'd shared before. I had to find something. So I read Twilight. I know, blah blah Twilight blah blah. I forgive you if you stop reading now, but I hope that you won't.
I read Twilight and because I liked the basics of the story (There! I said it!) and I love me some vampires, I recommended it to my mom. She read it but she didn't like that "the little girl has to die." I valued her opinion and went on with my day. We both finished the series. Then, a friend at work recommended that I read Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries. I love vampires and I devoured this series. My mom did too. And now when we talk on the phone, we have something to talk about other than our jobs and her busy dogs. So thanks to vampires, Charlaine Harris (and Stephenie Meyer too, I suppose), I have a better friendship with my mom as an adult. And because I'm adult I can say bad words sometimes and not get scolded. But not too bad.
Now, we're reading different book series and recommending them to each other. I feel like we're doing good things for each other, reading together, and we always have something un-mundane to talk about. If you struggle with connecting to your parents, or feeling a friendship with them (which is excellent to feel as an adult), I definitely recommend finding a book series and reading them together. It's wonderful.