21st Century Parenting

Parenting, like many other aspects of life, continues to change and evolve over time. When one's children are little, the time and physical demands are tremendous, and any energy that's left after feeding, washing, playing with and generally nurturing our little ones, is spent expending countless hours feeling guilty about not doing everything perfectly. Eventually, however, we parents fall into a rhythm and begin to feel relatively confident about the role that we play, and able to handle the ups and downs that come along.

That's the point, just when we begin to think that we have it all figured out, perhaps even wondering aloud what all the fuss is about, that our kids change! Those adorable, innocent, all-believing youngsters hit adolescence, and suddenly our over-confident attitude comes back to bite us! The child who used to think his parents had all the answers suddenly believes that his parents don't know a thing! Even more distressing is the fact that that surly teen can, with a roll of his eyes and a sarcastic remark, have his parent actually feeling rather clueless, as well. And that old expression that there is no such thing as a dumb question? Try to find a teen that agrees with that! My own efforts to gather my teen's assistance with a technical issue have left me feeling very inept, as, with an eye roll and a click of the mouse, he quickly solves my computer issues. I worry about the day my son leaves for college, and hope he won't mind my constant calls and e-mails as I solicit his technological expertise.

They say that our children arrive in this world as babies so that we will fall in love with them, and carry this love into those more challenging teen years. It can be helpful, in those more trying times, to reflect back on their sweet innocence. However, our teenagers are, for the most part, wonderful in their own right, and life would be very dull without them!