your family.
  • sarahmpfcs
     
    My observation is that the most difficult thing when parenting is deciding the right times to offer choice (or autonomy in general) and the right times to set clear requirements or expectations.
  • queenmama
     
    Parenting as they get older…my 14 yr old baby asked me if it was easier to parent little ones or big kids. I say hands down it's teenagers that challenge. Their issues are bigger, the possible impact of dumb decisions are life changing, their questions require a more thoughtful answer, with more room for them to determine their own views within the context of their parents ideas about how things should be. They are challenging our authority as they should be, yet have the emotional maturity of a much younger child. They need their parents to support and guide them in ways that still allow them to grow, screw up, and learn, at a time when too many parents seem to wash their hands of their responsibilities because they are just too difficult to deal with. it is difficult as a parent to realize your children no longer respect your views or you just because you are the parent, but that you now have to earn their regard as a person, person to person, and also that they are much readier for us to loosen the reigns than we are to do so. But, we can't afford to let go of our teens too early….when they need us the most
  • hismail
     
    balance work and life