hi, hey, hello! be honest...

[Rubia Padilha]

Being a teenager mom is difficult, huh?
I agree.
Why we don't tell this to all our friends?? WHY we don't really scrap about this?
We should keep things real! LOL
Ok.
Bye.
[always running! I miss the days where I used to have time to do nothing!]

[nesser1981]

It is hard! I don't scrap about it, because I don't think the kids want to hear about what jerks they were! LOL! I mean, it's hard to be a teenager right and they don't want to remember the things that were terrible about those years, I know I don't want to remember what a crabby jerk I was at that age. I mean, I'm sure I was a dream. LOL!

I guess we could scrap them to share here as therapy, but that's not something I feel like I want to document for the family to rehash that we didn't take a family trip for 4 straight years that Cooper didn't make me cry at least once.

It fact that it was something everyone commented on when we got back from Disney this time, hey, Cooper didn't make you cry! IT was a great trip! LOL!

They're hard! I'm not looking forward to doing it one more time with Harper. UGh, he's our sweetest too. The teen years are going to break our sweet baby.

[allyanne]

I think I have mentioned this! Like, a LOT. Haha, teenagers are HARD. I scrap it sometimes, but I don't like making angsty, sad pages. And Vanessa is right, I don't want to remember it, and neither does my kid, probably. There are bright moments and good days, but I am not one of those moms who will tell you to "soak this time in because it doesn't last, blah blah blah." I'm RELIEVED it's going to end someday!

[Leablahblah]

I'm not at the teenager phase yet with my girls but I'm scared already!!

My girls are so hard! They have so many feelings and I do too and was never really able to manage them myself so how do I teach them how to do it?!

Nobody told me having kids would be this hard. I would have stopped at 2 if I had known... lol don't tell that to my 3rd. She's the easiest one of all so far. lol

[Kimberly27]

Omg! Teens are a nightmare but also a dream. My soon be 13year can be a real pain but mostly obnoxious and MESSY! The soon be 19 year old is finally at the human stage most days. I still get the attitude and eye rolls at times but mostly he is very helpful and sweet. He cooks for us, helps out with his brother. So it does get better.

[HeatherH]

I guess I hit the jackpot with my 2 boys! They never gave me a lick of trouble. Ever. And they love their mama They're now 20 and 25 so we are way beyond the teen years and still sweet

[joelsgirl]

omgosh, it's so true! But I do scrap about it:


They're coming into their own, and they don't know how to process all the feelings and hormones, so they act like jerks sometimes. One night, my oldest teenager woke me up at midnight sobbing because he looked in the mirror and didn't know the person looking back at him. I was able to treat him with a lot more compassion after that. It's not just hard to parent teenagers; it's hard to BE a teenager, especially with social media.

I wish we could discuss this over coffee so I could hug your neck and help carry your burden.

[Kiana]

I've scrapped about a few things. But those teen years weren't as bad as right now with 18&19yr olds.

Trying to find their independence and mom trying not to be as "mom" as possible while letting them learn is TOUGH!!!!!

[JillW]

We were only able to have one child ... he was such a good kid ... never any issues (okay, other than being a little messy every now and again)! He's 38 now and has 3 kiddos of his own (2 daughters and a son), I'm afraid his life won't be quite as laid back once the kiddos are hitting teenage years!

[tjscraps]

Oh I agree - I have a 15 year old now and it is HARD. My youngest is almost 7. So by the time my oldest is out of the phase, I'll just be getting into it with the younger one (there's none in between). I will never, ever get out of this phase lol

[bienejen]

Yes, yes, yes. Teenagers are ROUGH! My oldest has always been very strong willed and there have been more times than I'd prefer that we have butted heads. He's 18 now and working full time, and I think that is slowly starting to give him some new perspectives on life. We still have our days, but I'm hopeful he's maturing. My youngest has always been more laid back and super observant so I like to think he has learned some things like how NOT to push my buttons from seeing some of his brother's reactions. He'll be 14 in a week so he's definitely in those teen years but I feel like it's been somewhat smoother. I can only hope it stays that way.
I will occasionally throw a detail in a page about someone's attitude or something that was said but this is one of the only pages that was full on me doing scrap therapy. Reading it now it doesn't seem like such a big deal but that day I was just furious and frustrated. I think it was good to scrap it because now it reminds me that there have been hard days, but we made it through. And something that seemed so huge and important, wasn't the end of the world after all.

[LJSDesigns]

You all know about my struggles with my son as a teenager and how I handled him through that stage. He knows he was a jerk, but I didn't scrap about it for many of the same reasons mentioned above. Or if I did, I did it in the most positive, loving way I could.

I am not going to lie, I am more like Ally. I was glad to get him grown and on his own. Being a single mom was hard so I am not sentimental about it.

Now that he is 31, he and I get along great, talk all the time, especially since they are staying with me, and can laugh about some of the teenage angst he went through and I endured.

Being a parent is a tough job and it would probably do everyone a world of good if they did talk more about it with others on the same path.

[renatasluis]

For me it wasn't hard when they were teens. Especialy with the
Youngest one. Never any problems.

[stephc777]

It is hard, Ru! Two of mine have been really challenging. I have never scrapped about it because I didn't want them to ever see the pages - I like to think they don't know how tough it was on me and I know they didn't mean to be difficult - they both have ADHD. I'm actually wondering now if I should in order to just process and let out the feelings I have about it. It probably hasn't been the healthiest for me to just stuff the feelings and pretend it didn't affect me. Hugs to you!

[MommaTrish]

Parenting teens definitely has its hard roads!!

[LeeAndra]

Figuring out that my oldest, who is almost 14, has "a touch of the 'tism" (this is how we usually describe them being slightly autistic) has helped tremendously with giving them grace on things that are hormonal/attitude things that can be changed vs. neurodivergent autistic things that cannot. I still find them exhausting to deal with much of the time but I'm now able to figure out which is them being difficult on purpose and which is them simply seeing everything as very black or very white.

I will mention in my journaling if either one of my kids was so exasperating or awful when we were doing something that it fundamentally changed the event or occasion but I don't generally scrap an entire page about my teenager's "teenager-ness."

[lovely1m]

I might be a weirdo and it might just be my kid, but I like him being a teen. Course I just had a near heart attack as I followed him on find my friends as he did his first solo drive after getting his license. There's always stuff to worry about with teens though.

[nietis]

Mine is not teen yet (one more year to enter teenager phase), but boy, he is just getting on my nerves a lot lately... Ughhhh

[MommaTrish]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

I might be a weirdo and it might just be my kid, but I like him being a teen. Course I just had a near heart attack as I followed him on find my friends as he did his first solo drive after getting his license. There's always stuff to worry about with teens though.

Oh I absolutely love them as teenagers, it is definitely fun and probably one of my favorite stages so far.

[Scrap-therapy]

This time always scary me.
Mine are 10 but clearly changes from kids to pre teen or tweens (is that the correct word?) and I already see some big changes.
Boy, I think it wouldn't be easy but sometimes they already getting on my nerves too.
It starts with my daughter and the starts of hormonal stuff. She starts to worry about growing and in the same time wants to be a teen. She can be very nice and lovely and all of a sudden respond badly and get angry for nothing.

Her twin brother starts to do stupid things (cut his hair himself at school) and starts to stay alone in his bed and don't want me to bother him... And then he comes to have a hug from me. He also had mood swing.

There's also the start of attitude. They think they know all better than me but they need me all the time.
Hmmmm seems not very good for later!

I don't really scrap this except with humour about their little changes.

I'm more worry with their learning disability (Dys troubles) actually and and how they will cope with their studies. But I don't feel to scrap about it right now.

[StacyLynn]

For one year... all four of mine were teenagers at the same time... I remember thinking "What the hell did I get myself into" quite a few times...

In all honesty, I found the preteen-early teen years the roughest. Like 11-15, middle school and into 9th grade... Things defiantly got better after 15.. not so many issues and emotions and hormones even out some.

But I will say teaching 4 to drive gave me all my gray hair. And when they hit 21 and head out parting.... (and in college some before 21...ugh)

I really did not scrap too much of the rough stuff... just the occasional sassy attitude.

Now my oldest is almost 25 and the baby is 19....