Why I love raising a teen

There is no denying that raising teenagers is challenging, the mood swings, messy bedroom, inability to wash a cup up and the cave men language they seem to acquire on their thirteenth birthday are enough to make any parent want to pull their hair out or change their name and move to some remote country with a minimum age limit of 20.

There are many days when I have no idea what goes through the teenagers head or why he makes the choices he makes. I have on more than one occasion been astounded by his own stupidity and his clear lack of common sense. Why anyone would think spray painting a penis on a wall in furniture polish is a good idea is beyond my level of understanding!

Despite these challenges I have to admit I actually, secretly, love raising a teen and here’s why.

As the teen years have progressed, the caveman grunts have slowly started turning back into words again, and while a solid 80 percent of the time I have no idea what he is saying, I love the 20 percent of the time that I do. Secretly I love the conversations we have after school. The teenage outlook on the world, life and people in general is different to the outlook you acquire as an adult. I enjoy listening to his perspective on school, life and friends. I also enjoy the fact that during that 20 percent of conversation time I can have a somewhat adult conversation with him, something you can’t do with younger children.

There is also no denying that the teenager and I are very similar. We have the same sense of humour and both of us enjoy winding up the husband. I love how quick witted he is and there have been numerous times where I have choked on my dinner when he has come out with some hilarious remark.

I also love the fact that he has his own Spotify account and lets me use it. I have filled it with the Bee Gees, Neil Diamond and Smokie, something which I am sure he is grateful for. I think deep down inside he appreciates the fact that we don’t have the same music taste as listening to the same music as your parents is not remotely cool and would probably lead to social isolation. I made a passing comment that I quite liked a song he was listening to and the day after I heard him telling his friend he no longer liked the song because I did!.

I love the fact that on the weekends he stays up later than me!. I hate being awake on my own or being the last person to go to bed in our house. Being married to a police officer means the husband is not always home on a weekend, thankfully I can always rely on the teenager to be awake until the small hours on a Saturday morning. There have been many times when I haven’t been able to sleep and so I have gone and “hung out” in the teenager’s room while he plays games on the PlayStation with his mates online.  I know you might be thinking why not just sit in your living room instead but I have two rather gorgeous kind Charles cavs and waking them up is a far worse punishment than sitting in the teenager’s room. He doesn’t really mind either, especially not if I take snacks. I have even ended up on one of his friend’s podcast YouTube things before!

I also love how the teenager is old enough to understand and deal with my epilepsy. Don’t get me wrong the younger ones try and do understand it to a degree, although the girl child always wants to carry out CPR on me, but the teenager can deal with any epilepsy related crisis easily and with a sense of humour. Nobody takes the piss out of my epilepsy more than the teenager and I love him for it. Although I am pretty sure if it was a toss-up between helping me and winning on a PlayStation game he would step over me to get to the PlayStation.

The thing I probably love the most about raising a teen is watching him grow and develop into a rather lovely young man who has his own goals and dreams and is determined to achieve them.

The challenges that come with raising a teen, though often difficult to handle at the time, have created some of my favourite memories of the teen’s teenage years so far. Time seems to fly by and pretty soon those memories will be all that is left of his teenage years.

My most favourite thing about raising a teen is knowing that in years to come I can retell all of his embarrassing stories to future friends and partners. Did I ever tell you about the time he broke his clock ………