Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Loving Your Teenage Daughter

"A teenaged girl is like a toddler in a woman's body."
  -me

I'm no expert on teenage girls...except I was an impossible one for my parents and I now have two beautiful daughters in the throes of the hormones of the teenaged swamp — with two more coming up the path towards teenage-dom. Oy vey!

Moody and comfortless at times. This is the twilight zone. My poor husband. Incidentally, one of my husband's Facebook friends wrote, in response to this post below, "Get. Out. Now!"


Here's what I've found to work...sometimes:

1. Listen. Really listen. Let her vent herself out.
2. Don't revile. She may attack you, but if you attack back it will be like pouring gasoline on a fire.
3. When she's in a good mood, tell her you love her even when she's in a bad mood and that you'll always love her.
4. Give her space to cool off and think.

What do you do to keep your sanity and love those teenaged girls? 


4 comments:

  1. Hm. Have you been listening outside my windows? Needed this today, thanks, Pam.

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    Replies
    1. So glad I could help Jenny! It's a tough job...we moms need to support each other and let each other know the stuff that works on our own way through this craziness.

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  2. my sister was a senior in high school when I was a freshman. My mom told me several years later that she thought she would die if she had to go through another year with both of us in high school together. I was so surprised when she told me this. I knew there were some tense times, but by the way my mom acted at the time I would have never guessed that she was affected by our squabbles (which mostly consisted of giving each other the silent treatment). I had no clue my mom even noticed our disagreements because she just did not react to our teenage behavior.

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    Replies
    1. What a great story, Jill. You have yourself a fantastic mom, too. Great advice to moms here: let kids work through their disagreements.
      By the way, do you and your sister like each other now?

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