Parenting is hard work. I’m sure you’ll all agree with me if you’re a parent.
However, parenting a teenager is another ball game entirely!!!.
I should know because my last baby is 19 years old.
For those of you that don’t know me, I am a mother of 4 young adult children between 35 and 19 years old and a grandma to two beautiful girls.
So I know one or two things about being a parent. They say we learn from experience and most of what I share with you guys on this platform is from my own experience of being a parent.
So today I’m going to share a little bit about parenting teens.
As parents we need to have a lot of patience and lots of love for our teenagers.
Teenage years come with lots of ups and downs. I should know I have one at home.
One minute they will be sweet as lolly pop 🥤 and the next minute they will be so rude and annoying that you would want to slap them. (Please don’t!)
But in those moments you must keep your cool and you shouldn’t react to their behavior o – I know it’s hard, but you can do this.
I think as parents, if we really take time to get to know our teenagers or pre-teens we will find out that they are easy to be with.
What I realise about my journey with my son is that he just wants me to listen and understand him. And I try to listen most times, but I’m human so I missed it sometimes and when I notice this, I tried my best to reconnect with him more.
Sometimes as parents we get into lots of power struggles with our teens just because we’re impatient and we want to control things. This won’t work! You can’t control your teenagers, I’m sure you know that already.
Another thing that really help me to understand my son when he turns 13 was reading books on teenage brain.
I learnt a lot from reading parenting books and research.
It’s no brainer, if you want to learn about new stuff you must study that stuff. Knowledge is power.
Reading parenting books will help you a lot if you’re raising children.
Also, be patient with them, they’re going through a phase and it will pass. Trust me. They need us to be the adult. Remember our kids mirror our behaviour.
Please don’t get me wrong o, I’m not saying their hormones are to be blamed for all their bad moods or misbehavior.
My point is that let’s try to look beyond our teens’ misbehavior and let’s focus on the good things they do. If we change our approach they will change too and you will be surprised!
Also, I think we should try and respect their privacy and boundaries. And LISTEN more!
They are no longer children, they’re almost an adult and we should treat them like so if we want to have a great relationship with them.
Of course we still need to set boundaries because they need it.
We also need to realize that what our teens really want from us parents is to understand them and love them for who they are, not for what they’ve achieved.
I would also like to point out that when you notice that your teens are acting out a lot, that’s the time for you as parents to show more love to them and be more supportive of them. (Remember when a child/teens are acting out in school there’s always a reason behind every behavior.)
Dear parents, I beg you please, your teenagers need you, be there for them no matter what! (You’re all they’ve got)
At the end of the day, what all our children really want is someone to listen to them and love them for who they are and isn’t that what we all want?
Let’s make our home a safe haven for them.
Appreciate them when they do good things.
And let’s continue to treat all our children with respect and kindness 🙏🏾🩵🩵🩵
My final thoughts:
So dear parents, if you want your teenagers to be patient, responsible, respectful, caring, considerate, thoughtful and kind and more. THEN BE ALL THAT TO THEM AND OTHERS! It’s that Simple! (They are always watching)
#connectbeforeucorrect
Happy parenting 😊❤️❤️
WHEN WE KNOW BETTER AS PARENT WE MUST DO BETTER
#parentingjourneywitholu #momslife
Positive Parenting With Olu 