Next week my children return to school. It is hard to believe that my youngest is entering his first year of middle school, my middle child is entering her last year of middle school and my oldest child has just two years of school left.
I am grateful that so far my children have faired well. We haven’t experienced many problems along the way. As each year passes without major incidences I feel like I can breathe a sigh of relief. Yet at the same time, as each new school year approaches I can’t help but worry some.
Middle school can be brutal. I think this is especially true for girls. I am thankful that my daughter wanted to remain in her K-8 school. She could have gone into another school district and attended a “real” middle school. However she chose to stay in our small, neighborhood school. She has grown up with the same kids and I think it has really helped ward off problems that she might otherwise have had in middle school.
So she has one more year with these kids and then she will be off to a large high school, which might be a hard transition for her. But I plan on keeping the communication lines open and making myself available to her since we really don’t know what the year will bring.
I am probably mostly worried about my youngest, for the sheer fact that he is still my baby. He has attended our neighborhood school since kindergarten but really wanted to break away and attend a middle school. I am grateful that because he joined the school’s football team that he has already made some friends. That will help when he starts his first day of middle school next week.
One of the ways that I deal with each school year is to keep a journal for each of my children. Since I believe in prayer, I fill those journals with prayers throughout the school year. It could be pertaining to their grades, issues with friends, being able to overcome temptations, whatever comes to mind or whatever is a current issue that needs to be dealt with.
A journal is something that anyone can keep, even if you don’t use the method that I do. If you aren’t one to pray, you can still fill a journal of your wishes for your teen. You could fill the pages with just your personal thoughts on what it is like to parent that child.
Another idea is to keep a journal filled with what has transpired in your teen’s life. Someday you could turn that journal over to your child, perhaps when they graduate from college or start their own family. What a precious gift that would be.
Journaling is actually very therapeutic and any parent of a teen understands that sometimes these are very challenging and difficult years. Journal your way through the teen years and you just might find it to be a great source of comfort.
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