Fairly regularly, people ask me what it is REALLY like living with three high-school age teenagers? Friends and acquaintances will want to know if it is as “horrible” as they have heard? If it is all sex, drugs, and bad behavior? Someone will watch a television program or read a newspaper headline and they will want to know firsthand, what teenagers are like “now days.” Well, all I can do is answer the truth as I know it…
As many of you know, I actually LIKE my kids and I enjoy the teenage phase. In reality, there have been such amazing things about all of the stages and phases my kids have been through that the differences have been exciting to me. I tell people that yes, all that sex, drugs, snarkiness, and bad behavior IS part of the teenage landscape, but so are some other things like independence, developing senses of humor, interest in politics and volunteering, parties, dances, and activities and all sorts of things. The life of a teenager is not so flatly one-dimensional that it is all trouble and danger.
When people say ask me “is it really as bad as I hear?” I can only answer that for me, it’s been wonderful and scary and delightful and horrifying all at once. Sure, it can be as bad as they have heard (and then some) but it’s such an incredible ride to watch as your sweet little kids morph into strong, individual almost-adults that I think it is really worth it. Besides, there is no way through it except to go through it. Just like the “terrible twos” or those “nasty nines.” Parenting is never easy at any stage or phase our kids go through and some of us find that we are “better” at some ages than we are at others. That’s okay. We still get the lessons and our kids are still going to grow up whether we are exemplary, ecstatic parents or not. So, yes, teenagers are everything you worry that they are…and then some!
Also: How Did I Become the “Hang Out” House?
The Self-Centeredness DOES Get to Me
Older Teens Really Don’t Come With Parenting Manuals