Skip to footer

Mother's Day: Parenting teenagers is like a personal action movie

Mother's Day 2012 is just around the corner, and parents of teenagers may be feeling like the parenting experience is becoming far too much like living inside an action adventure film, complete with action, romance and a lot of angst.

|
20th Century Fox Studios/Reuters
Mother's Day: Parents of teenagers may be feeling like the experience is too much living their own action adventure film – full of romance, lots of angst, and, of course, blockbuster action..

Being a parent of a teen is in some ways like watching an action adventure flick. There is never a dull moment; just when you think you've got the plot figured out there is another twist.

Of course there's also all that drama, seemingly at some moments simply for the sake of drama itself.

Like any true adventure movie, there is a bit of romance. As a mother, this represents your unwavering devotion to your teen despite the sometimes dumb or even disastrous situations in which your teen gets entangled.

Then there's all the emotion they seem to experience; one moment they are ranting and raving and the next they are anxiously awaiting your advice, or simply asking what's for dinner.

In any given moment you find yourself stepping out of one mom role ( i.e. advice giver, chauffeur, cook, housekeeper, etc.) and stepping in to another.

As a mom of a teen life is never boring, although at times you wish it were. At moments it may feel like a thankless task with all the door slamming, music blasting and even the occasional "I hate you." And as difficult as the most trying moments seem to be, you know in your heart you don't regret even a second of the rambling roller coaster ride on which your teen has taken you.

So, as another Mother's Day marks your calendar, sit back and savor a moment or two of sweet silence and relaxation but you better hurry, your teen should be asking you for something in 1, 2, 3...

The Christian Science Monitor has assembled a diverse group of the best family and parenting bloggers out there. Our contributing and guest bloggers are not employed or directed by the Monitor, and the views expressed are the bloggers' own, as is responsibility for the content of their blogs. Jennifer Powell-Lunder and Barbara Greenberg blogs at Talking Teenage.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Mother's Day: Parenting teenagers is like a personal action movie
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Family/Modern-Parenthood/2012/0509/Mother-s-Day-Parenting-teenagers-is-like-a-personal-action-movie
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe