Bit random, but how 'hard' is it parenting teenagers??

[threecurrantbuns]

Im interested as i have 3under 5s and considering a fourth but obviously am oblivious to the teenage part of parenting i cant help thinking maybe another would be ok now but would it when they are all teens!?

some people seem to take great pleasure in telling me how much harder things gets and how babies/toddlers arent a patch on teeneagers, i never thought alot of it but now im starting to wonder if it really is all so bad, people have made it sound like complete torture with no pleasure involved at all

Exoticfruits - are you me? Your experience of DSs1 and 2 is exactly like my own :o

Following this with interest ,have 3 ds aged 17,14 and 9 .When people ask me I always liken it to the toddler stage ,one minute things are perfectly calm and nice the next minute all hell has broken loose;if you are lucky you will be able to work out what the catalyst was ,more than likely you won't!

The good times are wonderful ds1 is funny,interesting (we both love politics and literature ) but his rages are ghastly ,really just like a giant toddler tantrum,the one thing in his defence is that he does always apologise,but it is like a red mist descends.Ds2 is a door slammer and an ignorer.

The most difficult things are the lack of privacy,the total lack of respect for possessions and the fact that everything you do is up for criticism and discussion.If I am watching a TV programme and ds1 comes in it will be why are you watching that ,what is it well how can you justify that when
x is on the other side etc etc .By which time I've missed it.They also want to talk when they want to not when you want to ,so no matter that you are busy doing something else everything has to stop NOW to accommodate them and their needs.I am sometimes astounded by how selfish they can be whilst at the same time being amazingly empathetic about their friends or the world in general!

I have found it probably the most challenging but also the most rewarding seeing these little people turn into young men ,I am
immensely proud of my boys but my God they could try the patience of a Saint:)

I have two, 16 & 19. It is very hard if you like being a mummy! Suddenly they want your house to entertain their friends, they want the food you will provide but really they would rather you were not actually around except to act as free taxi service in a way that disrupts every day of the week. Mine are very well behaved and pull their weight with domestic stuff, but I really feel as if I have a family that has left home but are still there is a rather unrewarding way.

I have two teenages and a twenty one year old. I think parenting teenagers is not always harder but different. As another person said the lines on communication have to be kept open - no subjects are taboo in our house.

Toddlers are harder work than babies and teenagers are harder work than toddlers..... so says my Mother (mind you ageing parents can be harder work than all of the above!!!)

Agree with everythgin Mrs Woodentop says. Esp the bit about the selfishness combined with empahty for the world in general!

Teenagers in my experience are the luck of the draw. I have a stroppy teenage daughter (and has been for about three years) but she works hard and applys herself.

I have a really easy going son who helps around the house without asking and has, this Easter, painted the house with his father (and not asked for anything) however, he is unlikely to work, academically, anywhere near as hard as his sister and when it comes to music grades he always wants to know what is the very minimum he can get away with doing to pass.

At least they areboth very polite with other people. I love them both to bits, but both frustrate me to distraction at times!

I actually think it is very hard to be a teen-I hated it and if there is one part of my life I would never do again it is those years. I think that if you view it as being difficult for them it is easier to deal with.

agree with Mrs woodentop again esp the empathy with friends but untamed selfishness at home. Agree luck of draw - i have one angel - everywhere-...one angel at school but hard at home and one bit of both... no idea why they are so different!

I do have an 18 year old who for two years now has been a great friend too -so know there is light!

I'm with Higgle. I have 2 wonderful teenage sons also 19 & 16; the eldest is at Uni and I'm no longer his mum - I am still his mother but he's pretty much self-sufficient and rarely contacts me from Uni.

My youngest is doing GCSE's and I'm here to cook for him (and bot does he eat), clean up after him, and act as a taxi service (but then where we live isn't really on a bus route). He will help around the house if I ask and he can be bothered but he's no real trouble - apart from pinching my CD's!

I found infancy far harder than teenagerhood, but then with boys what can you expect - boisterous when little then just huge eating & sleeping machines who grunt a lot as teenagers.

It's the teenage boy smell that gets to me - will be glad when that's gone ;o)

"but then with boys what can you expect "

agree juule

I have five boys

My daughter was just as boisterous as a toddler - much more than some of her brothers and the teen boys have never been teenage grunters!