Parenting Teens

Welcome back to Parenting Teens Blog - I’m you’re new hostess with the mostest, Lessa. I thought I’d start my tenure with PTB by introducing myself to you all, and explaining a little of what you might find here. Sure, most folks would suggest I not scare you off right away, but I decided to take my chances anyway.

There’s a little about the author link over there on the right with my name on it, but the basics are that I am 38 years old, a widow, mother of three - two of whom are teenagers 16 and 14, plus the 9 year old. I am a stay at home mom, with several ‘other other other’ jobs that I use to help keep us afloat, while allowing me to spend as much time with my kids as I can stand - you know, at least 5 -10 minutes a day.

I suppose I should give you fair warning after that sentence, hm? I am not your ‘normal’ mom. That’s not to say that physically I’m any different than any other round, loud, busybody female who’s carried three babies to term and raise them for years afterwards while managing not to irrevocably harm them in the process - but in oh so many ways, I’m not what you’d expect when you think of “Mom”. The ways in which I am different from the oh so revered “Soccer Mom”? Here’s two ways, just to get you started.

1. My hair is usually blue. Or green. Or purple. Or red. Or bleached in a fiery pattern. Or anything, basically, then my normal and vaguely recollected dishwater blond.

It started back when my kids started making rumblings about coloring their hair. Rule in my house - no wild color until the kid is 12. That way they understand they’ll be pointed at, and are prepared. (The exception was for sports events, natch. I’m not completely heartless - unless you ask the kids. heh.) I discovered a love for the “Rogue Stripes” ala X-men, and then the kids took turns picking the color for those stripes. I don’t remember a time when my hair was it’s natural, god-given color, but I think it was sometime in my 20s. Did I mention I didn’t start the hair color until I turned 30? Yeah. Midlife crisis anyone?

(ETA - Full disclosure demands that I further blame the hair color - the FIRST round of blue - on my best friend in CA. He broke me oh so gently into the wild color schemes with a light blue wash that made people look twice during my first visit to CA. I decided I liked it. The rest - as they say - is history!)

2. I don’t give a flying f**k for the status quo.

Blunt? Yeah, probably, but it’s who I am. I don’t care how you raise your kids, as long as you don’t decide you have to dictate to me how to raise mine. I care that we work together to raise honest, hardworking, empathetic, talented, respectful kids, and I know that there are 18million different ways to achieve that goal. We can’t teach our kids respect, unless we show each other respect. As long as there is no harm to the child, no harm to the parents, and the end result is the same, why on earth should we quibble about the details? Opinions are like…. you know the rest.

The rest will likely come as we get to know one another and I take up posting regularly here at PTB. I might scare you, I might cause your blood pressure to rise, I might cause you to think. I am hoping that you will join in, comment, and cause all the same things to happen to me in return. All I ask is that we remain respectful of one another, and our kids, as we work together to raise the next generation the best way we know how.

Without ending up curled up in a corner in the fetal position, whimpering. Heh.