Living with Teens

Already midway through his teens .... sigh.

The teen years are tough (especially for the parents, who just recently got out of their own teens or might still be living in the teens in their heads) for many reasons - schoolwork, relationships with friends, growing responsibilities, hairstyles, pimples and the like. You know what I mean, we all went through those times and it was either a blur of disjointed confusing events, ups and downs with your parents and siblings, boatloads of homework, projects and so on.

When you wake up from the transformation, from the cocoon of your childhood to a young adult butterfly, you might ask yourself "What was that??" or maybe "Thank goodness that's over." and look back in wonder and amazement that you are still in one piece, and still somewhat the same person, but hopefully with a more mature mindset.

Years later, once the pain and disorientation subside into a faded memory, you'll look back in fondness at the memories of your youth and wish you were there again, mistakenly thinking it was all fun, games, bliss and rainbow unicorns - research has shown we tend to forget negative memories like the agony of childbirth, University exams, your first marathon and teenhood.

While our teens are still in these transition years, with overdeveloping bodies but still too many unconnected neurons, our job continues to be to help them grow, learn and mature in their full potential. And somehow figure out how one can study calculus while listening to annoying EDM.