<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The years tend to sneak up. One day you bring a newborn home, and then you blink and have a sassy school age child. Another blink and you have a small adult in front of you. Of course children grow and become more independent all this time, but it happens gradually, in small ways that you tend to not notice. Until all of a sudden, you realize things are very different and wonder how you got here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gone are the Saturday mornings where you wake up at dawn, even without an alarm, because someone is staring you awake or worse, jumping on you with a cheery \u201cWake up!\u201d Instead, you wake up early (because after a dozen years, your body is finally trained to this schedule) and start your day. Maybe at lunchtime, you see a bleary-eyed person requesting breakfast. You may or may not comply. After all, how consistent are they when you make requests?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You can leave the house without first gathering a day\u2019s worth of assorted snacks, a change of clothes for each child and an assortment of toys to keep everyone busy and happy. You may however want to remind these adult-looking-but-rarely-acting humans to bring chargers and headphones for the car ride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You go get changed and start to head out the door. You are met with gaping stares. \u201cBut what will WE eat?\u201d Odds are, your fridge looks like mine. When you have teenagers, unless it is shopping day, there is an abundance of food. The problem is that some of it, gasp,<\/em> needs to be prepared. You decide they can figure it out (they will have to someday anyway), and skip out the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even worse, sometimes you agree. \u201cYeah, you kinda\u2019 are.\u201d Gone are the days of getting upset when your kids use bad words, like \u201cstupid.\u201d You find that your own filter has disintegrated a bit, and words you are not proud of sometimes escape your lips. Admit it, you’ve lost that battle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You are happy to host your friends and their kids. Your house is kid-friendly. You don\u2019t mind the chaos that comes with children \u2013 the noise, the mess. You even put the breakables up high. But you forgot about the danger of outlets and small items. Oh, and the irresistible temptation of magazines and books (they make such a rewarding sound when they tear). You apologize profusely, and let your friends rearrange your house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sure your kids are busy, but they are driving themselves places or have friends picking them up. You can make plans weeks in advance for lunch or a weekend away. But your friends have younger children, who are involved in sports and dance. They need to be available to transport them to and from these and playdates, or maybe even need to sit and watch. Remember how those days were, and be flexible. Consider having refreshments ready when they walk in the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even an innocent kiss can drive teens away. They don\u2019t want reminders of how they got here. This also can be a good way to avoid requests for cash or car keys, or answering questions you don\u2019t want to deal with right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Your teen is making lunch and makes a sandwich for you as well. He or she stops at Starbucks and hands you a cup with your favorite brew. You go to do a chore and discover it has already been done. Though this may be alarming, just say \u201cthank you.\u201d You\u2019ve done a good job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, parenting teens can be challenging, but there are some positives as well. Take advantage of the times you can kick back and relax and enjoy them while they last.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The years tend to sneak up. One day you bring a newborn home, and then you blink and have a sassy school age child. Another blink and you have a small adult in front of you. Of course children grow and become more independent all this time, but it happens gradually, in small ways that you tend to not notice. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-teens","tag-parenting-teens"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2021\/07\/IMG_0923.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kimberlyyavorski.com\/lifeontheotherside\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}One calls another a \u201cpain in the ass\u201d and you don\u2019t even flinch<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Friends with toddlers visit and start kid proofing your house<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Some of your friends can\u2019t make plans before checking their kids\u2019 schedule<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
PDAs ensure alone time with your spouse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes your child does something for you<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n