I’ve been feeling like a major parent fail lately. Due to having kids old enough to read and get embarrassed by having a blogging mom, I can’t go into detail. Consider this post to be along the lines of a extended Vaguebook update.
Needless to say, I’ve been calling in reinforcements in the form of humor (okay fine, wine. Every night). Because, if you can’t laugh (or have a glass of wine), you cry. I don’t like crying, my face gets all red and blotchy and it takes FOREVER for it to fade.
So, I must laugh.
Parenting is a tough gig. It really doesn’t get much easier as they grow, as I had hoped it would. (And sorry to all you moms of younger kids.) I mean, I don’t know why I would even think parenting teens would be easy, I was a teenager once. I wasn’t easy. And I KNEW I wasn’t easy, even when I was a teenager. So what would even make me think that my mom cursing me with having one just like me would multiply into five of them.
It’s not so easy to laugh. Not as much as I’d like.
Between the temper tantrums, the heartbreaking crying, the screaming, the complaining and the stank (because OMG do teens and tweens STINK), there are those moments that are calm. And you can look at those kids that came out the lower part of your body or through other ways that led directly to your heart and you can take somewhat of a deep breath and know that eventually everything will be okay. Once the hormones calm down.
It’s those in-between moments that I look forward to. Even though they are bordering on elusive. Those moments when no one is rolling their eyes, stomping their feet, slamming doors, throwing things…
You AND them,
When your blood pressure is lowering and your hands and teeth are unclenching,
That you remember how very much you love these monsters. Completely.
And it’s all just a phase.
Everyone says so.
But OMG…the time they hit tween, head to teen and then beyond…
It’s a freaking long one. But, a phase, nonetheless.
And, no matter what your friends on FB are status-updating, you know that most of them are going through similar parenting issues that you are going through. Because tweens and teens aren’t supposed to be easy. It’s their job the way it’s our job to make sure they don’t hurt themselves too badly while they are all hormone-ing, teening and tweening.
Yet, no matter what, the love we have for our children is unmeasurable. Sometimes, it’s hard to breathe when the amount of love your carrying for that obnoxious kid..it hits you.
Which is why we CAN laugh. And know that ‘this too shall pass’…way too quickly.
In the meantime and between times…thank goodness for wine.
This is like FB statuses, amIright?