There’s only so much knowledge you can amass when you’re a parent. And almost always, when you think you’re about to nail it, the kids move on to a different stage of development and you’ve suddenly left scratching your head and thinking of how to reinvent the rules.

Parenting -the proverbial Catch 22: Parent your child, and your child “parents” you. Hits, misses and some learning curves after, you gain experience, only having to deal with and understand your next and very different child all over again.

It likely gets more confusing when you hit the stage of parenting a teenager. That’s when all that you never knew you never knew, comes hurtling towards you…and hits like a ton of bricks.

Ouch.

Teens can be fun to parent; they can throw punchlines, serve you back all your sarcastic jokes (proud mama), introduce you to cool stuff so you might not be labeled archaic or prehistoric.

At the same time, there are days they annoy you to no end, because you both want so badly to win the argument…and because they don’t like to clean their rooms!

Here are some of my personally amusing observations as a mother of a three teenagers:

1. You have to watch the general mood when they step into the house. Is it the chirpy-guess-what-happened face or the stay-away-for-now face. If it’s the latter, smile and stay away. They need SPAAAAACCCCCCCCEEEEEE.

2. Choosing the right moment to speak and how much becomes an art form to master. Do NOT talk more than you should and know when to end your sentences. Period.

3. There’s ALWAYS some form of music blasting in the house…music is life. Even if it is coming from the toilet.

4. They binge watch Tasty/TikTok food videos and learnt it from you. Guilt pangs (mine) to accompany hunger pangs (them).

5. Your fridge is always raided. Past midnight. Get used to it.

6. You’re try to render meals at the impossible speed of Tasty videos, and they just finish whatever you just threw on the plate at the same speed. Insatiable.

7. And with the space you give them, they sometimes give you mess. Learn how to close an eye, or two.

8. Opens an entire wardrobe full of clothes and proclaims: “Mum, I’ve nothing to wear.” The catastrophic dilemma of about every teenager on this planet hits close to home.

OR

Opens an entire wardrobe full of clothes and have everything fall out.

9. Mothers with girls…we get a little more empathetic towards each other at THAT time of the month…?

Or

Look out for more shouting matches. Hormonal teens vs Peri-menopausal moms? Lethal.

Jokes aside.

I came across this cute pin and it gives genius advice for moms with daughters:

For moms with sons: Do monosyllabic answers sound familiar?

“How did the outing go?” “Okay.”

“How’s the food?” “Good.”

“Pack your room..please..?” “Later.”

And when they feel like it, they give you hugs when you least expect☺️.

….

Last words…

Teens are fun. Enjoy the living daylights with them!

One of mine introduced me to this insane video some time back called Killer Karaoke ?

Seriously, it was ridiculous but had me in stitches. Have a watch…

https://youtu.be/I6mnWZ83vvU

You’re welcome. Happy mothering!