Just a friendly hand hold for any other mums of teens

[Pleasegivemeyourwisdom]

I've 3.

It's a 'journey'.

Just in case anyone wants to know another trying her best mum is thinking of them

It's definitely a journey. Nobody tried to kill another family member today and nobody cried so I'm taking that as a positive

Definitely

Ps. One of mine cried but was not sent home from school.

Actually. Hang on it's Saturday 😁

Yeah attendance has been a bit dodgy already this week. DC2 does have an excuse but talk about milking it...🤦‍♀️

Did any of you naively think you could escape the teenage years 😏. I did! What a Pratt I was !

Oh so glad not to be alone! Dd seems to have made mates with everyone who has massive problems. One is a girl whose parents have 5 other kids and get stressed and smoke weed, one is a girl? Who was started on testosterone at 15! Is that even allowed?

Oh.... that's allowed.

In fact, you get a free cup of tea ha ha

I so welcome this thread. Thank you. It’s hard.

Apparently I am not annoying, but the fake person I am pretending to be is annoying! Solidarity x

Let's celebrate the mutual good times and comfort in the shitty ones ! 😜

It's bloody hard isn't it. Mum of 2
So grateful I grew up without Internet and social media ( mid 30's) couldn't pay me enough to be a teen now.

Then again how my parents raised 6 in any day baffles me!

I may murder DD soon. She is clearly on a mission to push my buttons. I'm wondering if we switch off the heating entirely for the winter and take cold showers would that be enough for boarding school?

Oh hello!! Very happy to have some solidarity….they may have not cried today, but I have just quietly shed tears now they’ve all gone to bed. Some of dd’s peers were so unpleasant and mean to her today at a sports match (wouldn’t even let her stand with them) and she dealt with it quietly and sensibly (just left them to it….though was horrid to me instead because the download needs to go somewhere..). She’s not easy (I know!!), in fact she’s a pita, but they never give her a break - if she makes a friend they move in to ‘remove them’. I try to make things better but obv it’s never enough….

I have 3.
One has come out tof th eother end, and as it was a LONG journey, can I just reassure you that they DO come out the other end. He is now 19 and really quite nice!
Loads of struggles with age 17 and 14.

I just didn't know that it would be so hard emotionally, some of their issues have left me quite broken actually.

On a lighter note (!) one has just split up with boyfriend after a year, and so I have spent every evening and all day today being an emotional support person, and I am knackered. If I have to watch another episode of some crappy drama, while not being able to type on my phone as my arm is roudn dd, I will scream. And this is the easy stuff!

@TreadSoftlyOnMyDreams the trouble with boarding school is you need to be able to afford it😂…..dh and I share this fantasy often👍😆

We've had tears, mute silence and lying face down on the bed refusing food. It's past two am here and I'm lying in bed sleepless and feeling pretty desolate myself. A timely handhold. Thanks op x

Glad I'm not the only one that fantasises about packing them off to boarding school . Ds 16 is so stroppy and argumentative - when he's out I almost feel lighter as I'm not walking on eggshells. We're had about a year of this and it's really bloody hard especially when you're menopausal. I miss my beautiful boy and hope it's not too much longer before he come back to us as this current version is a selfish and angry young man that I'm sad to say I really don't like

Not boarding school, but counting down the years until they have all headed off to uni.

But youngest is only 14 😂

Why is it that they hit the teenage years just as we hit menopause? It surely makes it harder!
I have ds 20 so know that they do get through but the last couple of years have been the hardest with him. Ds15 almost 16 isn’t too bad but I’m wondering what’s round the corner!
sending teen mum solidarity to you all!

I'm wondering re the coinciding menopause thing too. How can this double whammy be fair?!?!?!

I'm actually petrified that my semi solid self won't withstand 3 teens to maturity.

Half joking, half not joking!!!!

Yep, that's exactly how I think - if we can get through a day where no one me cries, it's been a good day.

DS17 is actually being nice at the moment, however DS16 is being quite 'testing'! Not helped by the fact that DS17 is rewriting history and dispensing parenting tips

and they wonder why I drink

I think there is a strong element of truth in the wisdom that teens get more challenging the older they get so we miss them.less when they leave home.

Mine has just turned 18 and she's fabulous but I swear the last year has been the hardest period of parenting ever.

The dichotomy between them being independent but still not confident/worldy enough to not need hand holding for all the new things that they're doing is huge.

Friend of mine with FOUR teen DCs describe things in her house as the horror film Richard Curtis never wrote, 'Four puberties and a menopause'

I also saw a couple joke online that their secret to a long marriage was that neither one of them wanted full custody of all the kids at any given time. That hit a bit too hard...

@MytummydontjigglejiggleItfolds Both anecdotes are genius, I need a laugh - thank you😆