You’re going to want to know this stuff. And if I’m not here to tell you, you won’t know until it’s too late. You’ll most likely already be in teen-parenting mode when you finally realize the truth. That is, parenting kind of sucks, no matter how great your kids are and how much you love them. Even though you wouldn’t trade them for most anything (most anything…we all have our price). Teens are unpredictable, and not in a good way. And you really can’t understand this until the teen is your own. A lot of teens, though by no means all, save their really ugly selves just for you. To the rest of the world, they are incredibly polite, intelligent, kind and fun. To you, they are devil-spawn, which is a bit scary since you spawned them. They can make you question everything from your sanity to your favorite color to your choice in dinnerware. And then the next minute, they’re all hugs and humor. It’s exhausting. It’s exhilarating. It’s unpredictable.
And then one day, it’s over. And on the other side is this incredible person. This adult. This individual who grew up despite your inadequacies, your failures, your insecurities. This person who taught you more about yourself than anything you ever did on your own, who forced you to grow up with them, who gave you forgiveness even when you didn’t feel you could forgive yourself. For mistakes you didn’t even know you made. Until they reminded you.
Nancy Wiley writes. 