Parenting Tweens and Teenagers

If your kids have entered that wonderful stage of puberty/karma then you probably know how tricky this stage is.

I promised myself when I was a teen that I would never forget what it was like being this age and I was going to parent my kids completely different.

This isn’t a slight towards my parents as now the shoe is on the other foot and of course I see the bigger picture. They gave the best they had based on their own experiences and when it came to materialistic things, they gave what they could afford equally-I am one of 5 kids after all.

Parenting is on-the-job training and we only get one shot at being our best selves – no pressure right?!

I had all these ideas and plans for how I was going to handle issues. I would read up in anticipation of things to come.

Something I have said to my kids so many times is “ You have no idea how good you have it” and I feel incensed when I get the eye roll.

Here’s the thing, though. Of course they don’t.

We do all the things for our kids that our parents didn’t do for us- we tend to fulfill any past unmet wants and needs by providing them for our children. We do all these things so they will never miss out on the experiences we wanted, the shortcomings we felt.

Our kids don’t know how good they have it because we have parented them to not know- that was the plan all along wasn’t it?

We’ve done everything we can to remove the struggles so they will experience them and get frustrated that they don’t appreciate something when they have never known any different.

Is this what over-correcting is? Possibly. Would I do it any differently? Absolutely not.

I just need a minute till the next event comes along where I will get that martyred feeling and I will know, I might be the only one who knows but I have a feeling if you are a parent then you know too.