"Mother Nature is providential. She gives us 12 years to develop a love for our children before turning them into teenagers."
-William Galvin
Now that my children are older (one an adult and two teens), every time I see a mother with young children, I feel a bit of envy and joy. I feel joy because my kids are older and I am so done with diaper changing, tantrums and feedings. I don't have to constantly worry about them running around and touching things. Yet I feel envy because with older kids, my struggles are bigger. I have to constantly worry about them keeping their room clean, focusing on school, if they are eating healthy; who they are hanging out with and so much more.
A few days ago as I was watching my teens and wondering what kind of creature they had become, I had an epiphany: We are given teens so we can learn a few life lessons from them. As we become adults, we start running and stressing. Our daily chores take over our brain cells and we work too hard. We push ourselves and our kids to work harder and be successful in everything. We put up unrealistic goals for them and for ourselves.
Now you will think that I have absolutely lost my mind, but before you judge me, make sure to read what is written below.
Just like teenagers, we need to:
•Be able to sleep for hours without worrying about chores
•Develop selective hearing capabilities
•Eat bags of chips for breakfast, lunch and dinner sometimes
•Not stress over dirty clothes lying all over the house, just zig-zag through them
•Realize that the world revolves around us
•Ignore people who pull us down (basically parents!!)
•Sit with your mouths open and just stare at the walls (meditating)
•Switch our whole persona in a second by acting clueless when talking to parents yet with friends, become alive and awake
•Have the ability to cry and laugh at the drop of a hat
•Believing that we will conquer the world, but not really work for it
•Believe that money grows on trees
"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."
-Author unknown