Having a toddler AND two teens in the house certainly makes for interesting times. Both ends of the spectrum keep me on my toes, that’s for sure. But, hey all kids do that, right? I’ve worked with teenagers for a verrrrrry long time now (don’t let me say the number of years out aloud) and so am well used to the sight, sound and smell of them …….well at least I thought I was until I found two of my own in the teenage zone.
My two teen boys are just gorgeous and I seriously love them to bits. Big, huge, to the moon and back bits. They are good kids and give no trouble, and because I’m certainly well aware of the escapades that some teens choose to participate in, I’m super proud of them and their behavior.
I can’t escape though from the fact that in this period of their life – adolescence – there are behaviours that are just typical of their age but foreign to the Mum in me. The dirty socks get smellier, bedrooms can at one time smell like a gym and the next like a Rexona testing center. Then of course, there’s the grunting and single word responses that replace excited kid-chatter. It IS normal to have to drag conversation out of a teenager, it’s normal, but hard. The screen shot of me testing out a new messaging app last night beautifully illustrates the nature of teen communication. It was a bit of a joke moment between us, but poignant too and it truly did make me smile
A few years ago now, in my professional role, I wrote an article about Communicating Effectively with Teens and I think it may be time to fossick through the archives, revisit it and publish it here. What do you think, do you have any of these teen people living at your place??