It wasn’t so long ago that we had three teenagers in our house.
When I started this blog over 5 years ago, I had a 17 year-old son and the 15 year-old darling twin daughters. And a whole lot of blog material.
I entered the blogging world with no expectations other than to share our real life stories and to write as my personal therapy. I saw how many “mommy blogs” were out there and the number has probably tripled since I started. I also watched as a number of these bloggers stopped blogging as their children reached middle school. Stories became less funny and their kids’ privacy was more important than their blog readership.
Because my three teens were in high school when I started blogging, I kept it simple by letting the teenagers preview any blog post about them. We’re all pretty transparent here at the Humpfreeze abode so for the most part they allowed me to share freely.
You, my blog readers, let me know how much you appreciated a glimpse into our real life and the life lessons we racked up on a weekly basis. The connections to other parents, friends and family is one of the benefits of blogging our stories. Finding the funny is really the gift. Laughing has kept me from another breakdown.
Still, the blog is the sanitized version of our life. I’m saving the more vivid details for the book.
Round 1 with three teenagers flew by with our fair share of struggles. Nothing huge. No giant crisis. Just the mental exhaustion that comes with trying to keep up in a battle of wits while living with the darlings who know they are much smarter than their nerdy, ridiculous parents.
You might think the wisdom of our experience would make round 2 with one teenager a breeze.
You would be wrong.
Our one teenager celebrated the beginning of her 14th year last Monday.
Happy Birthday Scary Baby…
She is beautiful and we love her dearly.
She continues to test our parenting skills on every level.
The stories are still here. Most of them in my head. I’m trying to sanitize a few so I can still be authentic without embarrassing her.
Or I could review the remaining episodes of Dancing With The Stars.
Stay tuned.