Todds and Teens

Most of parents of young children hear comments such as : "How cute they are...wait till they become teenagers". Or "These are the best years of parenthood". Even worse "When they grow up it very, very sad. They will start bringing home all sort of troubles and problems". I'm sure everyone hears these apocalyptic prophecies, mostly by people closest to us, especially family.

Now, don't get me wrong, I do love these years, where I can fool around without grieving the kids' ego, or to put it mildly without embarrassing them. However teenage should not be all that dark and gloomy. Looking from a positive perspective might even induce me to actually look forward to the years of doom as I'm sure many of the troubles we face with toddlers will disappear. Let me illustrate...

1. Food. Hands up all of you who had, are having, or have had trouble feeding your little kid. Daniel was the one who gave me the hardest time with baby food. I remember so clearly one episode when I was trying to feed him marrow soup. The soup was everywhere but in his mouth, let alone in his tummy. He was green from head to toe! Now our main problem during meals is that they get distracted, either with chatting, day-dreaming or playing with food that we have to keep reminding them to eat. To encourage them to eat at a steady pace, we tell them that if they eat in less that 45 minutes, they would be allowed to watch some Baby TV. Otherwise it would be too late and they'd have to go sleep straight away. Now take teenagers. They just gobble up whatever is in their way, including you if you're half way between them and a muffin!

2. Sleep. We all know how hard is to get young ones to sleep or nap. An entire hour of bed time routine only to hear them ask for a drink, to go potty, to tie hair in a pony tail etc., as soon as lights are out. And of course, in the morning they're the first to be up eager to start their day full of fun-"Yippee mum, it's morning. Let's go". Needless to say in this house no one naps. On the contrary teens tend to like sleeping in. I've heard mums calling theirs off-springs with the megaphone to wake them up in the morning. "Mum, it's not even noon yet!".They also tend to monopolise the couch for their afternoon 3 hour nap. Poor kids, they are growing so fast. And after making them, forcing them even to dry the dishes after lunch, they should have some deserved rest.

3. Proximity. Babies and toddlers suffer from separation anxiety. At a certain stage if you disappear from their sight they cry their heart out. They get over that stage when they start walking. Why? Because they can follow you of course! And follow you they do, even unto the end of the world, thus no one should be surprised that a toddlers follows you to the bathroom. Teens on the other hand, suffer from 'I don't want my friends to see you' anxiety. Goodness forbid that you accompany a teen anywhere (unless they need a lift of course). I've also read that parents should avoid waving at (worse still calling) a teen in public. Experts advice that if you see your teen in public, just pretend that you don't know him/her. S/he might be grateful and dry the dishes without grumbling much.

4. Helping. Toddlers love to help around the house. They love feeling useful and 'grown -up'. Of course little mishaps always happen: a broken glass, split water, food flying off a plate, a messed up cupboard. With teens there is absolutely no danger that any of these mishaps happen. Why? Because most of the time they are eating, sleeping or out of your sight!

Oh yes, I SOOOOO much look forward to my kids' teenage years, but in the mean time I will enjoy this bundle of blessed happiness as much as I can!

Emma, Daniel and Julia playing on a cart earlier on in Autum. We had a pick nick there.

Last Saturday we took the kids for a bike ride.