The universal experience of parenting teens seems to be that we don’t talk about universal experiences.
We don’t talk about any experiences, so who even knows what’s universal? Remember when they were babies and toddlers and there were milestones we pretty much all expected our kids to hit at some point?
This post is made possible with support from the Center for Parent and Teen Communication, part of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. All opinions are my own.
What if I told you there actually ARE teen milestones? The Center for Parent and Teen Communication has, and I’m thrilled to partner with them on a series of posts about a few of them because LET’S TALK ABOUT PARENTING TEENS MORE, YOU GUYS. We’re all out here silently wondering what is normal.
To start, did you know that following through on a goal is a teen milestone? I can’t say that my 13 year old has checked off all the milestones just yet, but he has definitely done this one- more than once- and it makes me so proud!
Remember when we were traveling the country in an RV and he decided he wanted to play ice hockey when he didn’t even know how to ice skate? He spent the next year teaching himself how to skate (on ice in rinks around the country as we traveled and with inline skates in RV parks), then mastered enough of the sport to make a team when we landed here north of Austin.
He’s now into his THIRD ice hockey season! And sometimes I’m just blown away that he DID THAT. HE made that happen.
Parenting a teen is hard, and we have a long way to go, but seeing him set a goal and see it through has given me a lot of hope. Like the CPTC says, “The drive and determination to see a goal through are major assets in their transition to adulthood.”
The CPTC provides science-based strategies to support healthy family relationships. If you want to check out all the teen milestones (I’m going to share about a couple more here, too), . I’d love to hear which ones your teens have mastered so far!
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