Fine. Yes. No. Seriously. Fine. Ok.
(that’s the extent of the vocabulary some days….)
And if you’re like me – you’re tired, you feel like you’re winging it, your teens drive you crazy and make you proud, you worry, you stay up late and you feel like you don’t have a clue what to do. Well, except buy a whole bunch of food at the grocery store because they do eat us out of house and home. You show up, you love. You work hard, you hope. You learn, you try. You deal with them questioning your love as you give them more love.
So moms in these gap years of motherhood – I see you. I hear your heart. I feel the bittersweet letting go.
Just because we have teens doesn’t mean we don’t need friends or that we have all the answers.
We’re just in this new phase.
And it may not be as cute, nor as facebook worthy. We might not be sharing first day of pictures with handmade signs or strategies for the best Elf on the Shelf hiding spot. But there are things that are the same – the no sleep, the worry, the joy, the letting go, the giving of our heart. What matters isn’t perfection, isn’t a car without scratches, it is that you keep on driving. You keep moving.
Even when you don’t exactly know how this teenage story will end up. We just have to talk about it – just as much as we did when they were little.
It’s the feeling of alone that makes it challenging. But if we keep being the village, keep showing up, keep loving each other in this phase just as much as when they were little and we’d deliver meals – well, then, we can get through. And honestly, I think we should start up the meals for moms with teens….just saying…
Breathe, mom of teens, you’ll get through. And you, my sweet friend are not alone in the slammed doors, late night waiting up, text reading, bleacher sitting, college app applying, tears as they grow up journey. They still love you. Trust me. You might go through a giant drought of that love but there will be a day when they look back and think wow, my mom showed up for me.
I remember the day my oldest left and the day she was born and the memories in-between.
There isn’t a season of life, of motherhood, where I stopped loving, stopped giving, stopped trying.
And that sounds like you.
So mom in the teen years – keep on carrying you.
You’re changing lives. One pick up, one text, one talking about the hard stuff, after another.
~Rachel
If you’re looking for a book to challenge your thinking about motherhood and the patterns we get stuck in – my book The Brave art of Motherhood is available now. Get it here -> Autographed or Amazon or Bookstores near you.
