I have found, over the past 17 years that parenting is exhausting. See my favorite meme⬇️
The type of exhaustion changes over the years. When kids are young it is more of a physical exhaustion, with the constant diapering, feeding, little sleep, chasing, keeping kids from killing themselves. At the end of the day, a parent falls into bed physically exhausted from the day.
With teens the exhaustion changes to more of a mental caliber. Thankfully teens sleep great! However, the days can be filled with deep conversations and hard parenting moments that need a lot of prayer and wisdom. (Now think of having teens and young kids at the same time. That’s like a different level of exhaustion right there.)
Of course, though parenting can be exhausting, it is definitely rewarding! When kids are young you get the cuddles and kisses, cute moments and hilarious quotes that keep one posting on their favorite social media app. When kids hit their teens there are rewards too.
First, getting to witness all your hard work bear fruit in mini adults brings moments of great pride! Seeing Aaron choose good friends who love the Lord, for example. Or watching Abigail reach out to someone sitting by herself and draw them out and make them feel loved. Or finding out Andrew has taken initiative with the younger two kids to get them to clean up the house without their mother knowing. It is so cool to watch these teens bud and start to bloom into young adults. I praise God for His work in their lives, and the gift of being able to witness the growth and maturity.
All the kids have chores according to their age and abilities. However, often times, the teens go above and beyond their daily chores and pitch in around the house in ways that make my life a lot easier.
Aaron loves to cook and bake. I can count on him to take over cooking a meal if I need to go deal with something. I can also count on him to prepare dinner for me, or bake a loaf of bread. It’s fun to cook along side him too. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen.
Abigail loves to practice her mom skills. She is often referred to as Mom Jr. 😊 She is an exceptional babysitter, engaging with kids, reading and playing with them. She has uncanny abilities at reverse psychology, which amaze even me, a master at the art myself. Yesterday I caught her using a Darth Vader voice telling Asher, “Join me on the dark side and never put your shoes away!” And then I heard light saber noises as Asher and her pretended to fight and Asher put his shoes away and stayed away from the “dark side”.
Andrew loves to help, in whatever way he can. It doesn’t matter my request, it is met with a “Sure, Mom!” Andrew, can you take this to the conference room? “Sure, Mom!” Andrew, can you play with Anna and Asher outside? ”Sure, Mom!” He is always willing to help and is very dependable. His favorite thing to do to help is to watch Anna and Asher for me, using his amazing imagination to invent crazy games, skits, and plays with them. I think he enjoys it as much as they do!
So those are my teens! They are not perfect, but neither am I! However they are showing that they know how to love and serve in the power of Christ, and that makes me so proud of them! Seeing God work in their lives and watching them grow and make wise choices is so rewarding. I praise God for His faithfulness!
