For Parents of Teenagers

Beautiful Daughter.

Commuter Husband and I are the parents of a tweener and a brand new teenager. We worry about the next five to eight years as we parent them into young men. Some days are wonderful. Some days are just plain awful - ask Commuter Husband and Youngest Son about last night's Spanish assignment which prompted Commuter Husband to send the teacher an impassioned email!

One of my BFsF (the one who had the heart procedure a couple weeks ago) has an 18 year old Beautiful Daughter. Beautiful Daughter was the sweetest baby and a delightful little girl. However, Beautiful Daughter's teen years presented many challenges to her and consequently to her parents.

Beautiful Daughter just got her acceptance letter to Texas A&M and this is what she felt ...

Every person I've come in contact with has made me who I am, but the one person who helped me get to this point the most was my mother. I never could have navigated this journey to college without her, and when I was sick, she was the one who pushed me forward to make sure I didn't lose my shot at this dream. At times I felt like I couldn't even finish high school, but she never stopped believing in me. So thank you Kare Bear. 

• Thank you for all the late nights you helped me study. 
• Thank you for letting me do what I needed to, even when it was hard for our family and people thought you were wrong.
• Thank you for homeschooling me. 
• Thank you for putting me in Karen Dillard.
• Thank you for all the preparation you did starting when I was so young. 
• Thank you for making me participate with Duke TIP.
• Thank you for reading over my essays.
• Thank you for finding me a wonderful tutor. 
• Thank you for spending endless hours researching to make sure I was prepared and had the perfect resources I needed. 
• Thank you for staying up to type my papers after I wrote them when I was too tired to even open a laptop. 
• Thank you for putting so much time into getting accommodations for me at school.
• Thank you for coming to take me home on days when I just needed to be with you.
• Thank you for always fighting for me.
• Thank you for being so patient with me.
• Thank you for never giving up on me when so many others did.

You are the perfect mom for me and one of my closest friends. The Lord has a great sense of humor, and I thank him every day for giving me you to raise and challenge me. I love you so much.

I have been fortunate to watch this Beautiful Daughter show her beauty inside and out. She gets it from her mother.

Thanks to Beautiful Daughter for giving me permission to post her writing.