Middle School Parenting...It Doesn't Get Easier

I thought that as my kids got older, it would get easier.  Now I am learning, it is not easier…just different. I am still tired and stressed, just for different reasons and my heart still explodes with love when I watch them sleep.

My older child, my son, is just starting middle school. In my head, I know that middle is school is full of awkward kids who are maturing a different rates filled with hormones that they do not know what to do with.  I know that my own middle school experience was filled with twists and turns and that the behavior I saw around me was often worse than what I saw in high school. Well, at least in terms of disrespect and fighting.  I know that many schools are poured into one larger school and that friendships change.

However, even knowing this, I did not really know what that would mean as a parent. I thought I would have more time before girls were asking my son to the Halloween dance.  I was not ready for good kids that I know to be suspended for a fight because they couldn’t control their emotions after getting picked on for days. I was not ready for my own son to tell me to, “chill” after I found him sneaking to watch the movie IT. I was not ready for how many answers that I would not have. 

This age comes with a lot of situations where you can give advice, but where you do not necessarily have the solution. It comes with being torn about helping a little too much so that your child will be successful and letting them fall on their face so that they can learn a lesson.

I am trying to keep up with the changing emotions, the changing interest and the enormous amount of food he eats.  I am trying to listen more and judge less.  I am trying not to yell, but to be firm without yelling even when his attitude is out of control. I am also lying awake at night replaying conversations and actions, stressing about whether or not I am making the right choices to help him grow into the amazing young man I know he can be. I am also bursting with love when I see him growing into that person.

This parenting thing may not get easier, but thank goodness the love makes it all worth it!