7 Jan
2007
Part of being a parent of teenagers is watching them go through relationships. Friendships blossom and then fade, they go through rough patches and some become very long term. There are also romantic relationships which often begin in the late teens. My daughter has had three boyfriends. Each of them lasted for around a year. She recently ended her relationship with her boyfriend of 15 months. Whether you’re the one leaving or the one being left, it’s never easy. No one likes to be hurt and it’s not easy hurting someone else. We’ve had floods of tears the last few days and long chats into the night.
A good friend of mine was recently telling me about her son and his relationship which has gone on for over a year. He’s 19; the same age as my daughter. I commented to her that we’ve entered a new phase of parenting; that is being parents to our young adult children. We can’t make decisions for them but they still need us for guidance and support. We know they have to work through their challenges like we all did. Sometimes it’s hard as a parent to stand back and watch them make mistakes but we know we have to. There is no better way to learn.
My 17 year old son has a girlfriend. They’ve been together a few months and things seem to be going well. We don’t witness any conflict and they appear to genuinely enjoy each other. This is his first so we know he’ll go through a break-up at some point as well. Boys though process things very differently than girls do. It will be interesting to see how he handles it when the time comes.
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