I am often exhausted, worn-out, and ready for a good day off. It’s not because I am overworked or sick. It’s not even because I am doing too much (even though I sometimes do say yes to many times in a given week). And just when I think I am tired, I glance over at my wife and see what real exhaustion looks like. No the real reason we are routinely exhausted and ready to fall into bed at any moment is because we are parents of toddlers.

As a parent of little ones, I have often dreamed about the days when they will give themselves baths. Or the day they will all be able to feed and clothe themselves. Or that glorious day when they will actually be able to drive themselves and their sibling’s places. But here is the funny thing: I keep hearing, “parenting teens is more exhausting than parenting toddlers”. Thanks for the encouragement…NOT!

However, when older parents give advice I tend to listen up, especially when they are speaking of the teenage years. Those are years that seem to make life difficult for everyone involved. The teenager. The parent. The siblings. Everyone. But it is a stage of life we all must go through and I want to parent not only my toddlers well, but I also want to be as prepared as possible to parent my teenager well. Which is why I loved reading Christine Hoover’s article “What I’m Learning About Parenting Teenagers“.

Christine writes in the midst of parenting teenagers, so her advice is not trivializing the struggles – as those who are past that stage can often do. She is no writing as a disconnected, unexperienced expert either. She is writing as a mom of teenagers. While her article offers hope (there are joys in having teenagers), she also speaks about realities (teenage years are the busiest, most exhausting years of all).

I hope you enjoy the article and as always be with the Lord’s people on the Lord’s day!

Photo by Hutomo Abrianto on Unsplash