If you’re in the throes of the ‘terrible twos” with your toddler, then you sometimes long for the days when that stage is well behind you, because…. parenting older kids is easier, right?
BAHAHA! Gather round, you young innocent parent souls, & let us educate you on the reality of living with tweens & teens.
Remember your sweet, cuddly young baby? GONE. In the blink of an eye, you find yourself submerged into a deep sea of hormones, puberty, odd smells (both their bodies and their rooms), and moods that jerk you around like Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
You are no longer cool. In fact, you are quite the opposite: you are uncool. Lame, even.
Or whatever word kids are using these days to describe lame things, because, again, WE ARE OLD AND UNCOOL. And you know nothing, because tweens & teens are confident that they both know and can do everything– until they ask you for a ride, or money, or to buy food, etc.
Parenting teens and tweens is a roller coaster ride that we all have to get through as parents. And the parents of twitter let us know that we’re not alone.
- If you’re raising toddlers, look on the bright side- teens are pretty similar, actually.
Having teenagers is a lot like having toddlers–except their toys are more expensive and they're harder to force into the shower.
— Foxy Wine Pocket (@FoxyWinePocket) August 2, 2017
2. Let’s first address the obvious part of living with teens- hormones. THAT’S fun!
Well, I never thought I'd call my daughter a raging-she-devil-bitch-from-the-depths-of-hormonal-hell but here we are.
— Julie Burton (@ksujulie) September 6, 2016
3. But believe me, boys in puberty can be unpleasant, too. *pinches nose shut*
My god is there any deodorant out there that will tame the smell of a pre teen? He smells like a rutting boar in a garlic patch
— Tim had issues ™ (@LaptopShopWH) April 16, 2016
4. Tweens & teens just love to point out how uncool you now are.
13: I have an app that makes everything look cooler. [snaps a picture of me] Nope… not everything.
— m??mma unfiltered (@MommaUnfiltered) January 5, 2019
5. In fact, they’re convinced that you’re trying to make THEM as uncool as you now are.
Shoutout to all the parents who're ruining their teens' life by making them wear weather appropriate clothing
— Healthy Living for Hot Messes (@HLFHM) October 16, 2018
6. (That is, if they even bother to talk to you in the first place…)
Don't give up hope, parents of uncommunicative teens. Today my newly-chatty son said "nah" only three hours after I asked him a question.
— Housewife of Hell (@HousewifeOfHell) October 16, 2016
7. But tweens (and teens) are more than happy to argue with you- anywhere, anytime!
Apparently all I have to do to get my tween daughter’s attention is say something she can contradict.
— Jessie (@mommajessiec) September 20, 2018
8. And they’re convinced they know everything– or at least more than you. Always.
Strangers pay me a lot of money to give them advice but let me try and tell my teenager one single thing and it’s an automatic, “You don’t know anything.”
— Lady Lawya (@Parkerlawyer) September 18, 2018
9. You never know what mood you’ll find them in… especially in the AM hours.
Having a teen is fun when you go in her room 3 times in the past 1/2 hour to get her up, and then she yells at you for letting her sleep in.
— Mac Dickson (@macdickson18) January 23, 2019
10. Not that you really want to go into that room anyway, because YIKES.
Something old
Something new
Something borrowed
Something blue
Something that might be a sandwich– things I find on my teen's floor
— Rodney Lacroix (@moooooog35) March 15, 2018
11. Getting a tween/teen to keep their room clean feels like a battle.
95% of my teenager's room could be a laundry basket and he'd manage to throw his clothes in the 5% that wasn't.
— Abe Yospe (@Cheeseboy22) August 31, 2017
12. Actually, getting a tween/teen to do ANYTHING can feel like a battle.
When you ask a teen to do… well, ANYTHING. pic.twitter.com/iIybwY357k
— Stephanie Ortiz (@Six_Pack_Mom) February 28, 2019
13. Unless they want something, of course. And they always want something.
If you think hope is dead then you must not have a pre-teen asking you every day for his own cell phone.
— MamaFizzles (@MamaFizzles) February 2, 2017
14. And the RIDES. Oh, the endless rides. You’re an Uber now.
86% of parenting teens is waiting in the car outside some practice or sporting event.
— Momma of Midgard (@MidgardMomma) November 15, 2017
15. The only thing worse than being an eternal driver- being the passenger as your TEEN drives.
If you doubt my dedication to a higher power, you should see how many prayers I can recite while riding passenger to my teen driver.
— Sarcastic Mommy (@sarcasticmommy4) February 15, 2017
16. Admit it- you were warned!
[Me before teens]
*super irritated that people always say, “Oh you think it’s bad now just wait til they’re teens…”*[Me after teens]
GOD HELP US THEY WERE RIGHT— TheBabyLady (@thebabylady7) December 11, 2017
17. But parenting a tween or teen can be fun sometimes- for YOU. Not them.
The awesome thing about having a preteen is that they make you feel like you have superpowers.
Like the superpower of being able to embarrass them just by being in their presence in public.
— Beau Coffron (@lunchboxdad) November 16, 2018
18. With the support of one another, we WILL make it through this awkward phase of parenting!
I want to say thanks to all of you who haven’t given up on me during these troubling times I’ve been having lately & by that I mean my kids’ teen years.
— EricaTriesToTweet (@EricaWhoToYou) February 23, 2018
And no worries- your kid will one day realize you’re actually a cool person with great life advice to offer… once he or she is raising a teen that is just.like.them!