From Tots To Teens

When my children were toddlers I would think into the future when they would be teenagers and to be honest…I was a little scared. You new mommy’s and daddy’s out there are going to be amazed by how fast the future arrives. When you hear people say “don’t blink or they’ll be grown”…well, you will just have to witness that for yourself.
Anyway… all I could imagine was my sweet, precious babies turning into mouthy, moody, teenagers who will no doubt hate me…OH and LOTS of eye rolling! I am living in that future now…all four are teenagers and sometimes they are mouthy, often they are moody… Occasionally I secretly wish that their eyes will stick in mid-roll and they will have to walk around looking like that. Every now and then I am pretty sure that they think they hate me but in my heart I know that they love me. Believe it or not…what I have learned through the years is that raising toddlers is good training for raising teenagers… tots and teens are really not that different. Both stages are going through enormous brain reconstruction. Both tots and teens push for independence and parental boundaries. The easy compliant tot suddenly says no to bedtime and becomes picky with food and the pleasant, easy-going teen suddenly becomes morose, moody and challenging. Now the things you butt heads about will be different….”Don’t jump on the furniture” will later turn into “your curfew is 10pm, don’t be late." Eventually the toddler stops saying NO to everything and begins asking why?, Why?, WHY?…and the teenagers’ vocabulary, often shrinks to about 3 words – ‘whatever’ (which means yes), ‘asif’ (which means no) and ‘maybe’ (which means ‘no, but I am willing to negotiate a deal that suits me!’) . Raising a family is an adventure and it also a very trying time. You just have to hold your ground, stay positive, keep moving forward, stay in touch with your sense of humor (even when your teen tells you that you aren’t funny) and just remember during the rough times that “this too shall pass”.