‘I Slept on My Teen’s Bedroom Floor Last Night. It Wasn’t a Slumber Party. It Was Just All I Could Do.’

When your kids are young, it’s easy to swoop in and play the role of the protector in all the mother-hen ways you know how.

Scraped knee?

Here’s a Band-Aid.

Nightmares?

Here’s a bedtime story.

Homework problems?

I can conquer 2nd-grade Common Core math like a champ. Now BRING on science fair. 

Boy problems?

Oh that’s right. They still have cooties. 

And the list goes on…

But once they approach the teenage years, those simple fixes aren’t so applicable anymore. Relationships are tricky, break-ups are hard, their homework is even harder—and it often leads to parents feeling like their hands are tied. What happened to being able to fix all of their problems with those handy Band-Aids in the medicine cabinet?

Elizabeth Spencer of the Guilty Chocoholic Mama knows this struggle all too well. In a viral Facebook post that has resonated with parents of ‘big kids’ across the web, Elizabeth proposes that sometimes all you can do is ‘sleep on the floor.’

Show up. Sit with them in their pain and mess and fear, and endure the night.

“This is how it is with big kids: the older our children get, the more the things they need comforting from are not things we can do much about,” she writes. “When they don’t have friends, we can’t set up playdates for them. When they don’t understand their homework, we usually don’t understand it enough to help them, either. When someone breaks their heart, we can’t (and shouldn’t) go try to talk them into loving our baby again… But we’re letting our big kids know that in all of these, they’re not left on their own.”

Read Elizabeth’s powerful parenting insight in full below, and be sure to SHARE it with the parents in your life who could use this encouragement today:

“I slept on my teenage daughter’s bedroom floor last night.

It wasn’t a slumber party. It was just all I could do.

Guilty Chocoholic Mama

She’d gone to bed early, as she does on nights she has that option, which aren’t many. I’d gone to bed early, too, but was awakened around 10 by my mom radar, which is almost never faulty.

Sure enough, light and sobbing were coming from her room. I went in to find her sitting up in bed, an assigned-reading book from one of her classes open on her lap and tears streaming down her face.

She was crying because she was upset because she wasn’t sleeping. She wasn’t sleeping because she was so tired she knew she should be sleeping but she was stressed about needing to sleep, which was keeping her awake. Also, her typical teenage body clock–“let’s stay awake until midnight and get up at 10!”–was not doing her any favors.

There was nothing I could do. She’d taken some medicine for a cold, so I couldn’t give her anything else. She knew all the mental games and relaxation tricks. She’d already tried doing something else. So I offered the only thing I could: my presence. I made up a bed on her cushiony carpeted floor, told her I’d stay there in case she thought of anything else I could do, and we both went to sleep.

This is how it is with big kids: the older our children get, the more the things they need comforting from are not things we can do much about. When they don’t have friends, we can’t set up playdates for them. When they don’t understand their homework, we usually don’t understand it enough to help them, either. When someone breaks their heart, we can’t (and shouldn’t) go try to talk them into loving our baby again. When they don’t get the job or the part or the spot on the team, we can’t (and shoudn’t) plead their case with the employer or director or coach. Their hurts are usually internal, so we can’t just slap a bandage and a kiss on them.

So we do what we can, which is hover nearby, waiting to offer our presence. Our cellphones are on and charged, in case they want or need to text. We’re ready for a midnight French-fry-and-milkshake run if their hearts get broken. We drive to campus to bring them home for one day of a weekend when they need a night in their own bed. We wait up in case they want or need to talk when they get home. We show up for games and performances and ceremonies, even when they drive themselves there ahead of time and stay after we’ve left and barely acknowledge us when they see us in the stands or the seats. We make them pancakes at 10 p.m. or leave a sub in a tote with an ice pack in their car for them to eat in between after-school activities.

Guilty Chocoholic Mama

We aren’t solving their problems. We aren’t doing their work. We aren’t fixing their relationships. We aren’t making up for their disappointments. But we’re letting our big kids know that in all of these, they’re not left on their own. We are worrying and crying and hoping and cheering with and for them. We are watching and waiting for our chance to smooth the rough edges, to fill in some gaps. We’re waiting and ready to be there: on the phone, in the stands, in the car. And sometimes, on the floor.”

**This post originally appeared on the Guilty Chocoholic Mama, published with permission. See more from her on Facebook.