Surviving My Teen Years Was Nothing Compared To This

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ng in front of us, where our sweet little kid used to be. It’s a bit of a shock, to be honest. While it doesn’t happen overnight, it sure can feel that way.It hasn’t been the smoothest transition — boyhood to teenhood. It’s been choppy at times, volatile even. But I’m trying to give myself grace, him too. I’ve devoured everything I can about raising a teen (much like I did when he was a baby) and while it’s all decent advice, it’s not a whole lot different than training as a special ops negotiator.<h2 id="b0ae">Communication, it turns out, is less about expressing one's self (assuming you’re the parent) and much much more about letting them express themselves. It’s about letting the barbs and the hurtful comments dissolve before they cause a wound.</h2>It’s about listening, even when you’ve got “better” things to do. And it’s about accepting that their experiences of anguish, ludicrous as they may seem, are their experience and you can’t argue with the validity of their emotions.I’m sure I was a challe

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nging teenager (my mom told me so) but I had no idea how deflating it would be. How my ego would be checked every fifteen minutes, and how good that would be for my ongoing growth.My son may be going through dramatic changes inside and out, but I also feel a peeling away of egoic layers. And hopefully, with a little more practice, we can both come out of this without any lasting damage. That being said, I think I’ll keep the therapist on speed dial just in case.Wait!Before you go, I just wanted to say thanks for reading. If you’re passionate about living a meaningful life that you can appreciate right now, you might like some of the other things I’ve written about.I post on my personal site <a href="https://www.anongray.com/food-for-thought/">anongray.com</a> as well as here on Medium at Change Becomes You, Illuminations, BeYou and The Writing Cooperative.Thanks so much for your support! ~ Anon</article></body>

It’s hard to watch our children struggle, even when we can recognize our own struggles as our sources of strength.

As a mom, I can’t help but worry, “this is it. This is the one that’ll break him.” But he’s more resilient than I give him credit. His growl may be loud, complaining and feigning inevitable death by embarrassment or failure. But in truth, he’s doing better than he realizes, and it’s time for me to get on board the resilience train with him.

I’ve never raised a teenager. To be fair, most of us haven’t raised a teenager until we’re faced with one, standing in front of us, where our sweet little kid used to be. It’s a bit of a shock, to be honest. While it doesn’t happen overnight, it sure can feel that way.

It hasn’t been the smoothest transition — boyhood to teenhood. It’s been choppy at times, volatile even. But I’m trying to give myself grace, him too. I’ve devoured everything I can about raising a teen (much like I did when he was a baby) and while it’s all decent advice, it’s not a whole lot different than training as a special ops negotiator.

Communication, it turns out, is less about expressing one's self (assuming you’re the parent) and much much more about letting them express themselves. It’s about letting the barbs and the hurtful comments dissolve before they cause a wound.

It’s about listening, even when you’ve got “better” things to do. And it’s about accepting that their experiences of anguish, ludicrous as they may seem, are their experience and you can’t argue with the validity of their emotions.

I’m sure I was a challenging teenager (my mom told me so) but I had no idea how deflating it would be. How my ego would be checked every fifteen minutes, and how good that would be for my ongoing growth.

My son may be going through dramatic changes inside and out, but I also feel a peeling away of egoic layers. And hopefully, with a little more practice, we can both come out of this without any lasting damage. That being said, I think I’ll keep the therapist on speed dial just in case.

Wait!

Before you go, I just wanted to say thanks for reading. If you’re passionate about living a meaningful life that you can appreciate right now, you might like some of the other things I’ve written about.

I post on my personal site anongray.com as well as here on Medium at Change Becomes You, Illuminations, BeYou and The Writing Cooperative.

Thanks so much for your support! ~ Anon

Surviving My Teen Years Was Nothing Compared To This

Who knew?

It’s hard to watch our children struggle, even when we can recognize our own struggles as our sources of strength.

Communication, it turns out, is less about expressing one's self (assuming you’re the parent) and much much more about letting them express themselves. It’s about letting the barbs and the hurtful comments dissolve before they cause a wound.