Raising Teenagers

Hey There!!! Welcome!!!

I am so happy you are here and can’t wait to share all the things with you! I haven’t blogged in quite some time and honestly I am pretty excited to be back at it. I have grown so much over the years as a Mom, Wife and Entrepreneur. I have so much to share with you!

I have thought for many weeks about what I wanted my first blog post to be about and what was important to share with you for the first time in a long time, and decided that no matter what I share with you, it will always be honest, genuine and real life.

SO...I will share a few revelations I have learned recently about being a Mom of teenagers!!!

I’ll be honest, I was certain I was gonna be bald and crazy as soon as they turned a certain age in tween/teen years...you hear the worst horror stories of crying, yelling, screaming, indecisiveness, and ALL the horrible things a kid can do to their parents. So far so good...now let me preface that last statement with this...they are only 11 and 13 so we have a ways to go, however they are pretty cool kids to hang out with so far. :)

Don’t get me wrong, we have had crying for silliness, losing their minds for no reason moments, and looks that could kill, if that truly happened when you shoot daggers out of your eyes at your parents because they asked you to put your shoes away that are laying in the MIDDLE of the floor. You know, typical teenage stuff. :)

No, really they are good kids and I will tell you why! I wholeheartedly believe that kids react to the way they are treated. Respect is earned, and we try to treat our kids with respect as long as they give the same respect in return. We don’t yell at them, yet speak firmly. We have established the expectations, therefore they don’t have too many rules they follow, just the way they are encouraged to carry themselves. Raising kids is tough enough with the demands of school, sports, social aspects, and growing up in general. We want our home to feel safe, be a place they can be honest and not feel judged, as well as let their hair down to laugh and play.

We, as parents, learned a long time ago to take advice from seasoned parents, watch and learn from those who have done this already, and have some grace along the way. Have we done everything right, absolutely not...however we have tried to improve upon ourselves through the years to become the best parents for our growing teens as we can be.

Now, ALL the prayers appreciated as we will eventually have TWO GIRLS going through puberty at the same time. :) HAHA!!!!!!

Until next time,

Stephanie Butler