Raising kids is hard. Raising teenagers makes me want to drink 😂
When my daughter left for college, I was heartbroken. Like, what was I doing to do without my bestie. She helped me get through so much during my battles with depression and then through the car accident. I legitimately lost all control.
Then someone gave it to me straight. I still had another child to be there for. I had my 16 year old son who needed me more now than ever. That was an eye opener. In all honesty, him and I didn’t have the same bond that my daughter and I had. It mad me sad but I understood why. He was growing up. He needed his space. He needed to be his own person.
This picture was from one of the many races we forced our kids to participate in. This one in particular was a 10k. He didn’t want to do it. He fought me. I made him do it anyway and he kicked my ass. I was so proud. I was proud because he did it and did it well. He waited for me at the finish line and helped himself to some good ole fashion Louisiana Jambalaya. For real. That’s why they did after the races there. It was so cool.
These past 6 months have been so good for us. Me being home and focusing on him and my recovery have been a blessing. I have learned that we won’t necessarily do the same things that my daughter and I did but we talk. We talk a lot. I am there to be his mom both physically and emotionally. I never realized how important that was until now. I love my kids more than life, but I lost my way when I had my meltdowns. It is hard to parent when you feel like you are losing all control. My husband was so focused on school that it was just the boy and I. We were trying to supper dad and we were going to make it work like we always have ...but this time it was just my son and I and our usual team of 3. We miss his sister something fierce but we know she is doing great things. Now we are focusing on raising this boy to be a man that is respectable, loving and who has an amazingly big heart. Now it is his turn. That sounds kinda crazy saying it that way but it’s true. We spent so much time on the girl with boy drama, and College. We knew that the boy still had a few years left so we really didn’t bother with it. Don’t think we ignored him. That wasn’t the case. We just knew that we were running out of time with her. It is not easy and it absolutely does not get any easier. I am just glad that we are still blessed with being able to raise this young man.
Wish me luck for the rest of the summer as we continue to spend all kinds of quality time together 😂.
My parenting tip for today is to try and always be present and listen. We can spend all day arguing and being that disciplinarian, but we also need to be mindful of what we have taught them. If we taught them to have a voice then let them be heard. If we taught them to be independent then let them make choices and mistakes. We can’t always be that parent who wants them to live in that bubble. They need to be able to survive in this world when we are gone.
