Parenting Older Teens

I used to write all the time about parenting young children. I’m going to let you in on a secret – young children grow up. They grow up in a nano-second and you are left standing there with your keys in your hand wondering how the hell ten years have gone by and what you’ve been doing with all that wasted time.

 

But that isn’t why I am here. Or at least, not entirely. 

 

Let me tell you how awesome my kid is. He went to Disney recently with some friends. They went in his car. He let me know when he got there (we are ~170 miles south). He also texted me at 8PM to let me know the steak at Sanaa was 10/10 and asked if I wanted anything. I said sure, I like their pita service with all the sauces. He said he was already planning to get me that and asked if I wanted something else. Nope, but he’s a keeper! He also mentioned he’d be getting in super late and asked if I wanted it in the microwave or fridge. Then he face-timed me around 10:30PM to show me this magical milkshake from CityWalk and to let me know when he expected to be leaving/be home. All his friends hopped on as well to say hello. They are all good boys. 

 

I was writing a blog not so many years ago about my free range kids leaving me at a Starbucks for a business meeting and going across the street on their own to the Barnes & Noble. That same kid is nearly 18 and driving himself 3 hours away to have a cool day with his friends.

 

I’m dying over here. But in a good way ❤️

 

What does this have to do with anything? I am over the moon that I successfully raised an adult from beginning to end. The other two adults I raised I got halfway through, so I’m not sure that they count when measuring parenting successes. They might disagree, or they might wholeheartedly agree. Who knows? This one though, this child is mine. I grew him and I loved him and I raised him to be the best kind of person I knew how to be. Sure, there was help. All the help. It takes a village you know. 

 

I couldn’t be more proud of the man he has become, of the human he is still cultivating. I feel that way about all of my children, but I never know how content I would feel when I realized we got from fetus to adult in one piece. Sure he still has a year left of high school. Sure that means I have a year left before worrying about moving away to college. Sure I have two more left after him to do this dance with. 

 

All that said, and all that aside, I am bursting with parental pride over his successes, and even his failures, because we learn from everything, and everything makes us who we are.