Their Finest Hour
By Renee Williams
This month’s issue is all about raising teenagers. Some of us have lived to tell the tale, some are forging ahead on the treacherous path and others are barely hanging on.
Both of my boys started out so sweet and loving and were so ridiculously adorable. I remember thinking I was going to be the perfect mom to these perfect babies. Fast forward to the teenage years and I found out I was so wrong.
Everything I thought I knew about parenting became null and void once my kids turned into teenagers. Suddenly, I realized I knew nothing and these teenagers of mine were quick to point out that fact.
And you know what? Some days, I think they may be right. I don’t know anything and I have no idea what I’m doing. I should probably wave the white flag, surrender or call a truce with these guys before it’s too late.
The ongoing battles, futile threats, yelling (always a “foolish and pernicious process”), the tears and power struggles leaves us all feeling defeated until I look closer and see the struggle of the teen who is trapped between the whimsy of childhood and the yearning for freedom and adulthood. So, I put up a heroic resistance against the heavy odds in this battle against the teenager and remind myself I am fighting the good fight.
Like the ultimate tough guy, Winston Churchill said, “If you are going through it, keep on going.” (Ok, even if Churchill didn’t say that, he should have) because sometimes during a battle, it is the finest hour. It is a time for untiring vigilance, vigorous mind-searching, ingenuity and imagination, a time where you find out what you are really made of.
Until October. Onward!
Renee Williams
renee.williams@augustafamily.com
This article appears in the September 2017 issue of Augusta Family Magazine.
Did you like what you read here?
