Anthony and I are on a new journey. It’s called the Road of Raising Bigger Kids! This is a whole new stage of life for us. We’re used to raising little kids. Wee ones. Dirty diapers and toddler tantrums are a cinch for us. Bring it on! We can handle that stuff.
Tweens and teens? Ummm…not so much.
Most of the time these days we look at each other with shoulders shrugged and hands up in the I-have-no-idea-what-this-is-all-about kind of way. What’s normal? What’s puberty related? Help! We’re dorks.
Oh my goodness gracious! Why, oh, why couldn’t they just stay little for longer? Little kids are easy peasy. Bigger kids have issues. And opinions. And hormones. And they forget to wear deodorant. And their socks don’t smell like little kids socks. And they eat a heck of a lot. And they can no longer get away with missing a shower. And they like to stay up way too late. And they think they know better. And they notice that boys are different to girls. And things start changing…everywhere.
Noooooo. Little kids! What happened to my little kids?
{smile}
Our oldest is spiraling toward the teen years. Like seriously quickly. And we’re kind of figuring it out as we go along.
Raising teenagers these days is not the same as it was when I was a teen. My dear old neighbor told me last week that he was “so grateful that he raised his children in the 60’s and 70’s because times are so different now to what they were then.” Yes, of course, that generation of parents had their fair share of issues to deal with. It was just different to the issues we deal with in 2011.
So being the kind of mom who wants to be informed and equipped to deal with what lies ahead, I decided that the time had come to get our hands on some good “how to raise a teenager in a world gone crazy” books.
Holy moly. Was I in for a surprise! I stood in the Christian bookstore and before me lay like fifty thousand books just on raising big kids. Okey dokey then. They cover everything from dating, to preparing for college, to raising a kid in a technology-driven society. Most of the authors I had never even heard of. Yup, a whole new stage in life lies before us.
I gave up. Too many choices. Too many decisions.
Instead, I thought I would come to you, my blog friends. Moms who have been there, done that. Parents who have raised or are raising bigger kids. I’d love some advice, and I’m quite sure that many others who read here could also use it.
Would you mind sharing some of the best parenting books you have read? Be sure to tell us the name of the book and the author. Also tell us why it was different to others you have read and what made it stand out. The nice thing about the new commenting system on my blog is that you can reply/comment on things others have said.
Go ahead and share your advice–the best books on raising big kids! By all means share your favorite books on raising younger kids too. It may just be a blessing to a mama looking for books on raising her wee ones.
I appreciate it heaps.
