Teen & Tween Round-up: Winging it

Winging it is the title of one of the featured blogposts this month and I thought it summed up parenting teenagers pretty well. Because, as these posts all demonstrate, when it comes to teenagers, parents are always just winging it!

But before we get to the negatives, let’s start with the positives. Stressy Mummy has written a beautiful post about her son as he turns 12. This exercise-loving, mum-hugging young man sounds like an amazing son and this post will really warm the cockles of your heart.

I love this post from Tattooed Mummy on ‘the trouble with teens’ because, yes, teens are troublesome! Somewhere between adult and child, they have an opinion and everything and voice it loudly, but then they do something thoughtful and considerate and everything is OK again. When times are tough, we all need to remember the good times.

I can always rely on Philippa at Sounding Like My Mother to give me a laugh. You know how raising teenagers is tough? Yet parenting books are only usually about 0-5 year olds? Philippa has written her own tongue-in-cheek book pitch for parenting books on teenagers…

Babies and toddler are hard work, aren’t they? If that’s all you’ve parented so far, you’ve got a shock to come… Because we take the decisions for our little ones, our teenagers take decisions for themselves, as Emmaand3 describes in this post. Parenting teenagers really isn’t a walk in the park! 

Great minds must have been thinking alike this month, because Nellie Pom Poms is also comparing teenagers with babies and toddlers and, guess what? After five years as a parent to teens (and with lots more still to go), she’s concluded that babies and toddlers are easier! Sorry to any parents of small children reading this who think they’ve got it tough. Just you wait!

It’s a theme which is continued over at 3 Children and It, where Suzanne realises we’re all just winging it. As soon as we think we’ve got things sussed, they change, and all teenagers are different, so what works for one may not work for the others.

Talking of winging it, when is the right time to leave three siblings home alone together? In my experience, it’s not the same time as you would leave one or two home alone because, spoiler alert, THREE KIDS FIGHT. If anyone has three kids who don’t fight, you have my utmost envy. But over at MumofThree World, during half-term I decided to experiment with leaving my three kids on their own for half an hour.

Despite winging it, Suzanne at 3 Children and It, with two teenage daughters and an 11 year old son, is seen as a bit of a parenting expert by her friends. And their most common question is ‘Should I let my pre-teen have Instagram?’. This is a great post which explains much more about how kids use Instagram (it’s not how we use it!) and Suzanne’s reasons for not allowing her 11 year old son to have it. If you think it’s harmless for a tween, have a read before making your decision!

Teenagers are renowned for their sarcasm and, to be honest, when they’re faced with a culinary disaster like Best Dad I Can Be’s, who can blame them? But just when Best Dad was expecting more teenage sarcasm, he didn’t get any! I love this post about him planning a bonding experience over a VERY long walk with his younger son. This is exactly the sort of thing my husband does with my 14yo son and it’s definitely to be recommended if you want to stay friends with your teenage boys!

Going for a long walk is just one of the suggestions from Anita at Thinking Parenting to get teenagers moving and motivated and, most importantly, away from the screens! 

That’s about all for this month. If you’ve got a post about teens or tweens to share, please add it to the linky below or tweet me a link (@sarahMo3W) for consideration for next month.

About Sarah Wood

Sarah is mum to a teenage boy and a tween boy and girl. When it comes to primary school stuff, she's got it sussed. But she's realising that as secondary school and puberty hit, she's still got a lot to learn! Between tweeting, blogging and parenting, Sarah is a freelance PR and copywriter, who still finds time to run long distances and eat a lot of chocolate. It doesn't leave much time for housework.

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