As a mom, I belong to so many mommy sites that offer advice, suggestions, and ways to entertain your children.  Being a mom of a teenager, I feel that I know a lot but am still afraid of what is unknown of being a parent of a teenager.  I ask questions, try to stay involved, and most importantly I listen, but this little person in front of me is changing before my eyes and sometimes I just need mommy advice.  Sometimes, I feel that advice is judgmental or condescending. 

We all love our children and we work hard to provide for them and to be role models, but being a mom is not all that we are.  We are human and make mistakes and question our judgment.  I have a hard time being the disciplinarian in my house and I don't like it when my husband is.  I don't wan to be my son's friend but I don't want to make him feel that he cannot come to me for anything.  At times this can be hard when trying to find a happy medium.

So I noticed we have taken to looking to others for ideas, but tend to dislike the advice we receive because we want our way to be the way.  We judge other parents for their children's behavior in public and express disdain for how these children act all the while saying "If my child acted like that I would...".  No one ever thinks that their sweet little child will ever misbehave or grow into this teenager that is no longer their sweet little angel, but an almost adult person.  

I have a wonderful relationship with my son and always have.  There are days when I don't like what he does or how he responds to his father and myself.  Sometimes I get angry with him, but no matter what I love him.  So in the last 16 years I have written about my experiences as his mom in a journal I will give him when he is 19- the age I was when I had him.  I want him to see the range of emotions being a parent has on someone and to show him that even when I thought I was doing it wrong there are takeaways from each experience that we had been through.

My Advice