• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
  • Hire a Moxie-Writer
  • Speaking
  • Contact
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Books
  • Single Moms with Moxie podcast

Moxie-Dude

Life updates gone wrong. Or right. I'm undecided.

  • #KitchenFails
  • Writing
  • Teenagers
  • Hamster Ramblings
  • Aging and its niceties
  • Shared Thoughts
You are here: Home / Kids / Good days and bad days with teenagers. Translation: UGH!

Good days and bad days with teenagers. Translation: UGH!

February 13, 2014 by Mona Andrei 5 Comments

Happy Friday Eve, awesome readers!

If I’ve learned anything since my kids have become infested with foot-stomping, door-slamming hormones (said with much love), it’s that there’s one trick all parents must keep up their sleeve at all times: TENACITY.

Tenacity

Stick to your guns and I can’t promise that you won’t feel like running away from home until your teens are 30. But don’t stick to your guns and I can promise that you will seriously think about it. Every other day.

One of the things I’m adamant about teaching my teens (besides not talking with food in their mouths and that when Criminal Minds is on there is NO OTHER CHANNEL) is that they are the masters of their own lives.

But you know how teens are, right? They’re so busy trying to understand their place in the world that overwhelming them with complicated concepts of Universal Laws and empty promises about a God that may or may not be paying attention when they need Her, is like continuing to pour wine into an already full glass. It’s a waste.

So instead I try to empower them on the most basic level of all: day-by-day. And I do this by asking them questions . . . mostly as I drive them to school.

So what kind of day are you going to have today?

Are you ready for a rock’n good day? (Yup. I say that.)

When they were little, these questions were always answered with enthusiasm because . . . well they were little and the hormones were still dormant.

Then things changed. About two years ago my questions stopped being greeted by their sweet eagerness, only to be replaced by one of three responses:

Silence.

Or

Eye-rolling.

Or on really ambitious days:

“Yessa! Stop asking me that!”

But still, I kept asking the questions.

Being a teenager is one phase of life that I would not like to return to. It’s hard. It’s volatile. It’s full of self-questioning and false beliefs about how everybody else has it “together” while you wonder if what you’re feeling . . . thinking . . . saying . . . doing . . . wearing . . . eating . . . is “okay”.

And while I know the questions are redundant and annoying (apparently), I just want to drill into them that no matter what’s going on, they CHOOSE what kind of day they’ll have.

Well guess what?

I think I’m starting to get through to them because as of about a week ago, I’ve been getting answers like, “you bet!” and “of course!”

Conclusion:

With TEENS, the TRICK is TENACITY.

Either that or they’ve just decided to appease me.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Share with your followersShare on facebook
Facebook
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on email
Email
Share on stumbleupon
Stumbleupon
Share on buffer
Buffer
Share on diggit
Diggit
Share on pinterest
Pinterest
Share on reddit
Reddit
Share on tumblr
Tumblr

Filed Under: Kids, mom adventures, Non-travelling Adventures, Raising teenagers, Random, Single moms

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anne @ FoodRetro says

    February 13, 2014 at 12:59 pm

    I love your little hand-drawn pictures. They’re my favourite parts of your posts. 🙂

    Reply
    • Mona Andrei says

      February 13, 2014 at 1:17 pm

      Thanks, Anne. I’m a crappy drawer but LOVE drawing.

      Reply
  2. The Animated Woman says

    February 13, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    This is so good. And so true.
    I also love it when you draw. But you already know that 😀

    Reply
    • Mona Andrei says

      February 14, 2014 at 10:00 am

      Thanks, JC. Means a lot because when I grow up I want to be just like you, Ms. The Animated Woman (where woman means genius).

      Reply
  3. Courtney says

    February 18, 2014 at 8:25 pm

    Hahaha, if I wanted kids, you would totally be scaring me away from it! LOL. But I remember being a teen and I bet some tenacity could’ve helped a whole heck of a lot. 🙂

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

A book for single mothers? BOOYAH!

Buzz

“Mona’s ability to mix humor with insight is truly admirable.”
Holly Monteith, Cynren Press






Subscribe!

Enter your email address:
Loading

Recent Posts

  • Dear Single Moms: The ceiling may not have the answers, but I do!
  • Sorry, I can’t come to the phone right now. My self-doubt is acting up.
  • The Sisterhood of Single Moms: Because Keeping our Sanity Takes a Village (and a lot of wine)
  • 10 Reasons Why Single Moms Are Superheroes (And Don’t Even Know It!)
  • The truth about why we feel crappy and 4 steps to feeling less crappy

Recent Comments

  • Diane on Dear Single Moms: The ceiling may not have the answers, but I do!
  • Diane on Sorry, I can’t come to the phone right now. My self-doubt is acting up.
  • Diane on The Sisterhood of Single Moms: Because Keeping our Sanity Takes a Village (and a lot of wine)
  • Susan McCorkindale on The truth about why we feel crappy and 4 steps to feeling less crappy
  • Diane on The truth about why we feel crappy and 4 steps to feeling less crappy

Archives

  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • July 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • April 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • December 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • March 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • September 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • October 2015
  • September 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • June 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • December 2014
  • November 2014
  • October 2014
  • August 2014
  • July 2014
  • June 2014
  • May 2014
  • April 2014
  • March 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • October 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011
  • May 2011
  • April 2011
  • July 2010
  • May 2010

Categories

  • #KitchenFails
  • Aging and its niceties
  • Boyfriend stories
  • Dating
  • Friday Funny
  • Guest post
  • Hamster Ramblings
  • Kids
  • Memory Lane
  • mom adventures
  • Non-travelling Adventures
  • Out & about – because Montreal is contagious
  • Out & About in Montreal
  • Pretending to be a grown-up
  • Raising teenagers
  • Random
  • Shared Thoughts
  • Single moms
  • Solutions to world problems
  • Sponsored Post
  • Technology (sort of)
  • That effin hamster
  • Travelling Adventures
  • Uncategorized
  • Weekly Wrap-up
  • Wordless Wednesday
  • Writing

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org

© 2023 · Moxie-Dude · webmaster