Life with a Teenager

I remember them placing him in my arms. It was love at first sight. I knew I loved him before I met him. I often had dreams of him before I knew I was pregnant. I knew he was a boy. I felt it in every fiber of my being. I just knew. From the first smile, to the first coo, endless hours staring at his perfect face while he sleeps. Rolling over, his first tooth, rocking on his knees and getting frustrated as he is trying to crawl, then his first steps. I remember seeing it all. His first word was "mama." It made my heart melt, I was his whole world as he was mine. How did I create something so perfect. So pure. So beautiful. Bubba....The nick name is pretty fitting actually. He's such a kind gentle soul wise beyond his years. Always so smart, so intuitive. He embraces the world and everything in it. He sees things from a far better light then most. They say life with a teenager is hard. So many new challenges that come our way. Hormones surging, his life emerging. That beautiful boy placed in my arms can no longer fit in my arms, and not even on my lap. When you become a mother, you go through so many mile stones and so many crazy emotions. You bring home this little bundle and realize, you have to keep him alive. You have to teach him life. You have to teach him everything. Some times we don't realize even with out physically teaching them, we are still teaching them. They see everything we do. Everything that makes you, you. They absorb the world around them and the influences brought upon them. As a mother you hope you are doing it right and they grow up to be wise, to be honest, to be responsible and respectable human beings that one day can change this world for the better. You give them your all. My Bubba is 13 almost 14. Where has the time gone? I blinked and he went from this tiny baby placed in my arms to a teenager. My bouncing baby boy is almost a man. Through the years as a mother, we grieve. We miss our babies. We miss our toddlers, that 4 year old starting pre school. That five year old that just graduated kindergarten. The years start to fly by and before you know it, we realize the long journey we know that still lies ahead for them going into adulthood. We watch them struggle to find their way with out us. We watch them fail, we watch them succeed. We wipe their tears and bandage their knees. As they become a teenager we can no longer hold their little hand and tell them everything will always be ok. Truth to the matter is, they will go through heart aches, they will lose people they love. They will lose the pets they love. We want so badly to shield them from it. We want to take all their pain away. We are mother's, it's in our nature to protect them. Truth is, we can't always protect them from failure, from heart aches. We can't always shield them from life. They have to learn. They have to go through life, feeling life. They have to know what it is to fail so they know what it is to succeed. We can't put them in that bubble we all know we desperately want to keep them in...forever. What we can do is be there to guide them. Be there to listen to them. Just plain be there. It's important. If we want the world to change and be a better place, we have to let them live and let them learn. They don't quite understand what the world is about but this is the most important time in their life for them to seek who they are and what their purpose is here on this thing we call earth. Life with a teenager is not terrible. It's beautiful. It's seeing all your hard work through the years pay off. It's seeing the responsible choices they made because you were there to teach them. I hear all kinds of horror stories about teenagers. I don't know about you, but my teenager is smart. He keeps his circle small and he knows his worth. I can't say he always makes the right choices but I can say he learns from the wrong ones. Why? Because I let him make the choices. I let him live. I don't put him in a bubble as hard and heart wrenching as it is. I am there when he fails. I am there when he succeeds. I am there when he needs to talk or doesn't say a word. I will admit he tells me more then my ears want to hear. You know what though? I wouldn't change it for the world. I want so badly to change the world for him. I want him to be that change. I want him to know right from wrong. If he gets himself into a bad situation, I want him to come to me. I want him to be able to make decisions that are the right ones. I want him to succeed at life. I want him to know that no matter what comes his way, he is strong, he is resilient and he can do anything he puts his mind to. There is no such thing as "I can't" in this house hold. There is always "I can and I will." I will always be there to encourage him as long as I am breathing. I will push him to reach is full potential and he will know that his potential does not have to be everybody else's potential. We are all different. We all have different strengths and weakness and that's ok. Life with a teenager is so good, I promise you. It won't always be easy but in the end it will always be rewarding. To think, I made that. That came from me. So many times I question myself. Was I too harsh? Not harsh enough? As a parent you are constantly asking yourself if you are doing it right. When you have a minute, just think of all the years and the things you've been through with them. Look at that teenager, I mean really look at them. You will be glad you did and so so proud of all the work you put into raising that teenager. This is the time you see the impact you made and realize what an impact it was.

All my love,

From the mom living the life with a teenager.