September 8, 2006 10:32 AM
B-U-S-T-E-D
Lately, some of the teenagers I know have been having a hard time. But, I'd also like to think of it as an important time--a time when they are learning some valuable lessons, even if they seem difficult to get through.
Remember when you were a teen, and sometimes you made some bad choices, but really believed that your plan for covering up those choices was so brilliant that you'd never get caught? Yeah, I remember that too. And sometimes, you'd get away with all that dumb teenage stuff. And other times you wouldn't. In the last few weeks, some teens in my life have haven't had the best of luck when it comes to trying to get away with stuff. And to put it bluntly, they've gotten busted.
As parents, we're lucky for those moments when a teen's story falls apart, and we catch them in the middle of making those bad choices teens often make. Not lucky in the "Aha! We caught you!" sense, but lucky that intuition or luck or whatever came into play, and we learned about something our kids were doing that we know could get them into trouble, maybe even hurt them. But you know something? I recall being a teen and learning much more from my mistakes than my successes. I don't expect my kids, or anyone else's kids, to be perfect. I'm just glad that from time to time, the universe interferes, taps us on the shoulder and says "You might want to check little Susie's story out," and we step in before bad choices lead to some very very bad consequences. So thanks universe, for helping us out. Because this parenting stuff sure isn't easy.
Comments
Amen to that! Isn't amazing how easy it was as we've become parents to cross over to the dark-party-pooping-joy-killing-responsible-thinking-safety-minded-side?
Posted by: Stacy at September 9, 2006 08:25 AM
From one 40-ish person to another, hi! Please come visit!
Posted by: Rhea at September 9, 2006 10:05 PM
YOu want the mistakes to happen so they learn that mistakes are opportunities to learn and grow -- while parents are around to help the learning process.
Cheers
Posted by: MotherPie at September 10, 2006 07:26 PM
