Help, I am rasing teenagers....

Photo Credit - Vanity Fair (Peggy Sirota)

“I think being a teenager is such a compelling time period in your life--it gives you some of your worst scars and some of your most exhilarating moments. It's a fascinating place; old enough to feel truly adult, old enough to make decisions that affect the rest of your life, old enough to fall in love, yet, at the same time too young (in most cases) to be free to make a lot of those decisions without someone else's approval.”   

 ― Stephenie Meyer, The Twilight Saga: The Official Illustrated Guide

I love what Stephanie Meyer says in today's quote.  Clearly her understanding of teenagers is why her Twilight books/movies have been so successful.  She respects the fact that teenagers CAN make adult decisions that impact the rest of their lives and yet she expresses sympathy knowing that the teens often find themselves in over their heads.  The sad apart is regarding the fact that the approval of an adult is sometimes AFTER the fact of when the decision has been made. 

In the movies however, the teens can always count on love. LOVE becomes a currency of sorts in these movies to get them through whatever.  While I agree love is powerful - it is only as an adult that I learned that love is what makes getting through worth it....love alone will not always resolve it.

Life is hard.   Life is also wonderful.  My kids are now at the age where they are learning the balance between the two.

I am scared to death of these years.

These are the years where my kids will begin to take the steps to secure their future.  These are the years where all the things that seem so important to them right now will be unveiled to them to be trivial in years to come. 

Is it the same for me?  Is my parenting in the same cycle?   Aren't I taking steps to secure my future relationships with kids now?  Will I look back and have things I thought to be so important as trivial in years to come?

What is the best advice you have for raising teenagers?   What is it you wish someone would have told you was trivial? I want to know!!!!