Before teaching I was a writer and every now and then I get asked to write the odd thing. A few of us provided our views on being a parent of teenagers. Here are some general ponderings if you are interested…
Parenting teenagers brings endless decisions and hearty debates to navigate together. Now of course your children have more to say about everything. Endless discussions on bed times, study times, phone time, what they eat, their pocket money, what extra curricular activities they do and don’t have time for, their schoolwork and how they apply themselves, or not, how they treat one another, and how they treat me, feeding the cat, doing chores, the list goes on. Dilemmas we now navigate together are breathtaking some days. And when your offspring actually become smarter than you and more effective at arguing coherently, arghhhhhh. You need a good night’s sleep to tackle the diplomatic mine fields that the teenage years bring. In many ways I have found I have less time for me now than when the girls were younger. But what I do know is this stage is the last step before my child turns into an adult, so what I do is important. Parenthood is about chapters and parenting a teenager is exhausting but it is also my most favourite and rewarding challenge. Watching my daughters turn into good humans is a source of huge pride. I can start to see some of the values I have tried so hard to install over the years come out as they navigate their way through their own worlds.
