Being a parent, parental figure, or guardian to a child is a hard job! I know parents come in all ages, sizes, and kinds. Some people have what we call traditional families and some families don’t. Like single moms or dads for example or kids who’s parents are no longer with them and are being raised by a family member or sibling or foster family. Regardless what kind of family you have, we all have a responsibility to teach the children we love and care for everything they need to know so that they grow up to be well rounded, culturally aware, healthy, and successful members of society.
Sometimes your child may want to do whatever he or she wants and may not want to listen to the life lessons you are trying to teach them, especially when dealing with teenagers. My teen boy rolls his eyes and sucks his teeth and tries to escape to his room and ignore me when I try to tell him anything or teach him something important about life. It can be a battle of epic proportions to get him to live and learn. Sometimes he truly needs to learn for himself and all you can do is hope he doesn’t get into too much trouble learning and after wards he can come back stubbornly and say sorry you were right!
I try to be a friend as well as a parent especially when they are in their teen years because we want to seem cool so that they can listen and talk to us, but I admit I try to be more of a parent than friend. I think you can be their friend later on in life when they are grown up and you don’t have to worry about them turning out to be a high school drop out or gang member or criminal since now a days teens can easily fall into those traps. I like to show my teen there is more to life that he hasn’t seen and show him how big the world really is and how much he can experience in life if he doesn’t limit himself to one way of thinking.
Here are a few life lessons that we try to pass on to our teen.
Never give up on your Dreams!
My teen has a learning issue, and do to that we always have to work harder to build his confidence in himself and build his hope for his future. He feels that since he doesn’t get the best grades in school that no good college is going to take him or he won’t ever get a good job or accomplish what he wants to be in school. I always contradict what he thinks and inspire him to think other wise. I got good grades in school, but I did get into trouble when I was a child so I wasn’t perfect, but I still managed to go to a good college like NYU. I try to inspire him with my life stories so that he doesn’t give up on his dreams.
Don’t be ashamed to be an individual!
Everyone knows it’s better to be a leader than a follower. I’m sure we all have heard the phrase “If he or she jumps off a bridge, are you going to jump too?” I try to teach my teen that it’s OK to like and do different things than his friends. You don’t all have to act, talk, and walk the same. It’s OK to be unique!
Don’t be afraid to share your feelings with others.
I lost my best friend when I was 12 years old and I always regret not telling her how much she and her friendship meant to me. And I always like to teach my teen that it’s important to tell or show the people you care about how you feel.
Enjoy your Life because it all goes by so quickly.
It truly does. One day I was in high school, then college, and now I’m raising a teen. It’s like I blinked my eyes and all that passed by so I really do instill in my teen that life will pass you by if you don’t live it.
And Lastly:
Be grateful for what you have because some people have it a lot worse!
Some families or children or teens don’t even have food or a roof over their head or parents and so forth. I always teach my teen that regardless if we have it rough, we still have it better than most.
These are just some of the life lessons that I try to teach my teen and thought I would share with my readers. What about YOU? What are the things you are trying to teach your children about life?
I wish I had a nanny like Nanny McPhee to help me teach my teen the lessons he needs to learn. Coming to theaters on August 20, 2010 is Nanny McPhee Returns.
In Nanny McPhee returns, Nanny McPhee uses her magic to teach the mischievous children she is caring for five important life lessons. What could those lessons be? I guess we’ll just have to go and see the movie to find out.
Me and my family love going to the movies when ever we can. We have a theater that near us that only charges $5 dollars for the 1st showing of films and $6 dollars for the showing before 5pm. I think we may all have to check out Nanny McPhee returns since we all enjoyed the 1st film. Yes my teen liked it too, even though he won’t admit it.
Thanks for letting me share this with you and for following my blog!
“I wrote this blog post while participating in the TwitterMoms and Nanny McPhee Returns blogging program, making me eligible to get a $50 gift card. For more information on how you can participate, click here.”
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Comments
I though I knew a lot more about parenting before I was a parent! I tell my daughters, "You have lots of friends, you only have one mother." and "Don't treat people how you want to be treated, treat them like they want to be treated.". You have a lovely site.