Words that You Should Never Speak to Your Children

DD and I are watching the Lifetime movie Coco Chanel. DD is sitting beside me designing away. It is transporting me back to a day when I would draw and draw away. Ideas swirling around in my head. If I do not say so myself, I had wonderful ideas. I started to think; perhaps I would follow this interest toward a career. When I finally got up the courage to tell my parents my plans, she replied plainly, “If that is all you want to do with yourself, why did you bother getting good grades?” It was that day that I put away the idea, and followed in the expected path.

I don’t expect that this same conversation will occur with my children, but it will be similar, just different enough for me not to recognize it when it is here. I pray that I never squelch their dreams, but instead help them strengthen their wings.

Mom & Me - Living with a Teenager

My dd is pushing the boarders every day. I guess that is the definition of a teenager. “I want a cell phone.” “Can I start a facebook account?””How do I look – wearing skirts way too short?” We have for the most part found middle ground, when necessary she has borrowed my cell phone with instructions to use as needed but not as wanted. The facebook right now is on hold. And she has agreed to wear leggings under the skirt. I know that I cannot maintain the walls forever so I have to think carefully about what I will and will not allow and how far I am going to fight. Since I actually want to win when I argue and not just cause her to hide her activities, I do have to relent to some of her requests. One which I may relent to is allowing her to blog.

Caelyn has been watching me blog and has been interested in the idea. So she came to me to ask if together we could create a blog site. Not her alone, but us together. Maybe, she saw this as a strategy to an approval. Of course, I’d prefer to think that she thinks back to the days when we used to write together. We would both get our journals our and write on a common subject. It was a special time together. I guess a part of me hopes that she longs for that. So, whether she has just calculated well or she sincerely looks forward to working together, we will be beginning a mother daughter blog. How I’m going to maintain four blogs, I don’t know, but when teenagers ask to spend time with you, you’ve got to take it when comes along. Plus think of all that writing she will have to do and I have supervisory capacity at her request. This could be - - -ok! I’ll let you know the info on the site when we set it up.

What battles have you relented to with your teenagers? What things have you remained staunch on?