Moms of Big Kids, You Don’t Need Self-Help Books

Motherhood is a fully human experience.

You’re going to want to hurry your kids through the bedtime routine because you’re craving quiet. Then later, get nostalgic and wish you’d lingered more.

You’re going to make it to the hair appointment, dentist appointment, and orthodontist appointment, but then forget about yesterday’s sports physical.

Your emotions are going to bounce from love to mom guilt to joy to failure and back to love. All the big feelings that come with motherhood are going to come and go like waves against the shore.

You’re going to ace the meal planning for seven straight days, then the next week everyone eats sandwiches and leftover pizza.

You will rally your family to clean, your house shining like a new penny, then the next day it looks like you all survived a tornado.

You’re going to show up to the hour-away tournament on time but with the red uniform instead of the white one.

You’re going to quit checking the online grades because your kid has been the boss of his school assignments, and then later, you’ll just-take-a-peek and do a full stop at the missing work glaring at you.

You’re going to sign your kid up for all the right activities, and they still won’t necessarily get chosen for the big school play.

You’re going to focus on the boots-on-the-ground taking care of your kids and midlife responsibilities and not “enjoy every moment.”

You’re going to feel like you have your big kid figured out, and then you don’t.

You’re going to feel exhausted even though you do take care of yourself.

You’re going to wish you’d said/done something differently, responded instead of knee-jerk reacted.

Moms of big kids, connect with your family over these 400+ conversation starters.

Moms and Dads, you are not doing anything wrong.

You don’t need to check out a bunch of self-help books or sign up for a parenting workshop, you are knee-deep in normal, I promise.

I’m high-energy, type A, love a full plate, and I’ve tried and tried to be perfect (because I genuinely wanted to, not because I felt pressure to), but it’s never worked out. And my oldest is 17 – there have been lots of years of trying!

In my street-level-personal-striving-for-flawless experiment, I’ve found with rock-solid certainty that perfect is a purple, sparkly unicorn.

Perfect is impossible.

Truly.

Raising tweens and teens is simply going to be a human experience.

The chaos, the roller coaster ride, it’s all normal and expected.

But, oh man, is it beautiful, and I wouldn’t trade places with anyone. I’m exactly where I want to be. Even though there’s a pile of laundry right now calling my name.

Moms of big kids, conflicting with your kid? Same, here. Communicating with my son over a checklist stopped the nagging and greatly improved my relationship with him. Read more in the description here.

Moms of big kids, join our community or raising tweens and teens and college-age kids…

Your brain bounces between your day at work, what time(s) your kids need to be at practice, your teen’s missing school assignments, that you haven’t called your mom lately, the load of the laundry to be switched, “What’s for dinner?” and “Why are 3 of my brain-tabs frozen?”

You are raising tweens and teens and college-age kids – the unique parenting phase where everything gets easier…and harder.

Join our community of raising big kids and get occasional email encouragements in your inbox including instant access to the freebie library. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Moms of big kids, shopping for your family?

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Cheryl Donely

Cheryl is a mom of 3 boys, wife, speaker, high school teacher, and author of Empowered Moms & Kids. She has a Master’s degree in Educational Leadership and is passionate about learning and teaching. On www.empoweredmomsandkids.com you’ll find inspiration and encouragement for moms raising tweens and/or teens. Read more in the “about” section of this page.