• Are your friends gritting their teeth today?

Are your friends gritting their teeth today?

It’s all worth it but it’s hard

Spare a thought for the mothers of teenagers who are going through a rough time. Mother’s Day might be a trial for them. They might even be your friends who are unable to tell you what’s really going on in their family.

When I talk to parents, it’s clear that raising a child who’s awash with hormones and surrounded by adult temptations with the maturity of a toddler is terrifying. And on occasion tear inducing. Here are the things that some face, often only able to confide in their closest friends or cope in silence:

  • Violence – some kids lash out at their parents
  • Addiction – from online gambling to drugs and booze, some older children go for it and there’s nothing you can do about it without putting the kid under house arrest
  • Self-harm – eating disorders, cutting, pulling out hair.  Children experience mental illnesses, the fates dish them out randomly. As much as their parents support and love them, it’s so hard. Especially as society is quick to find ways to blame them
  • Bullying – your child is being bullied and there’s little they can do to prevent the filthy f*ckers doing it
  • Grooming – some children are being tempted and then coerced by adults to sell drugs across county lines or to sell their bodies

So next time your kid fails to tidy up a bedroom (upload your images here) or empty a dishwasher, be thankful that that’s the extent of their teenage-ness.  Becoming a beg-friend (someone who wants attention all the time)  as Sue Elliott-Nicholls describes how her children treat her as they move away emotionally is a small and normal part of family life. Lots of parents go through agony on a different scale.

If you are a mother gritting her teeth through Mother’s Day, we take our hat off to you. You’re a Super Hero.

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