Parenting teens is an interesting time. There’s this child/adult in our house who was once our baby. The comedy sketch ‘Kevin the teenager’ was so accurate, it happens almost over night.
We go from being able to advise and help to fighting and trying to get them to do something… anything!
Suddenly they have their own views and opinions which has mainly been taken from TikTok and friends.
So how do we parent them?
We have to be willing to turn up completely fresh and new every day, every hour if we can. If we bring the argument we had yesterday in to the next argument, we’re done for.
I heard Erika Bugbee put it like this: we’re like tennis players, every time a tennis player hits the ball they have to be willing to go back the centre. When we parent we have to do the same, after every incident, argument, issue, we have to be prepared to go back to neutral. Back to centre and start from there.
If we try to start from where we left, it’s hard work, we can’t see the situation clearly. Imagine a tennis player if they never went back to centre.
This is something we can consciously do in day to day life, give it a try. Drop all your frustration from yesterday, like you’re holding a hot piece of coal and turn up with fresh eyes.