So, after the huge high of last nights game and the fun I had with the boys, I came home to discover that Salinda was not where she said she would be. The rest of the night was a labyrinth of lies and deceit. This morning, when she snuck her boyfriend into her bedroom and I found them lying in her room with the door shut, it all became crystal clear. (Note: He had only been here less than 1/2 hour and they were fully clothed).
I took that boy home and insisted on coming in and meeting his mom. Fortunately she and I are on the same page and I got a whole lot of truth out of the kid. I think he’s downright scared of me. The nice thing is that he’s a good kid and I like him. I think he likes our family as well. So there may be some leverage here.
But right now she’s holed up in her room with the radio cranked. So I’m in my office with Christian music cranked louder than hers. She is really busted this time and she knows it.
She is our 6th teenager. As a woman I travelled recently with said on our trip, “I used to have the cutest bunch of puppies at my house and it was WONDERFUL. But now they’re all Dawugs (she’s from the south, so that’s a two syllable word) and it’s not fun at ALL!”
As I have learned, she, as all teenagers do, will have two choices. She can either admit she was wrong, accept her consequences, stop blaming us, and turn around and head in the right direction or she can rebel even further. But our parenting won’t changed. As we’ve learned, the choice is hers. We’ll do our best, pray our hardest, even cross our fingers and toes if it helps, but ultimately it’s her life.
And that’s the hardest of being parents to teens ... if they are bound and determined to screw up their lives there is only so much we can do.
I took that boy home and insisted on coming in and meeting his mom. Fortunately she and I are on the same page and I got a whole lot of truth out of the kid. I think he’s downright scared of me. The nice thing is that he’s a good kid and I like him. I think he likes our family as well. So there may be some leverage here.
But right now she’s holed up in her room with the radio cranked. So I’m in my office with Christian music cranked louder than hers. She is really busted this time and she knows it.
She is our 6th teenager. As a woman I travelled recently with said on our trip, “I used to have the cutest bunch of puppies at my house and it was WONDERFUL. But now they’re all Dawugs (she’s from the south, so that’s a two syllable word) and it’s not fun at ALL!”
As I have learned, she, as all teenagers do, will have two choices. She can either admit she was wrong, accept her consequences, stop blaming us, and turn around and head in the right direction or she can rebel even further. But our parenting won’t changed. As we’ve learned, the choice is hers. We’ll do our best, pray our hardest, even cross our fingers and toes if it helps, but ultimately it’s her life.
And that’s the hardest of being parents to teens ... if they are bound and determined to screw up their lives there is only so much we can do.
1 comment:
Reading your post about Salinda makes me think of my relationship with God. I bet He thinks the exact same thing about us on a daily basis.
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