Being a mother of an adolescent son

[Mitzi]

For those of us who can't remember how weird we ourselves were during adolescence, I recently came across a wonderful article by Maggie Dent. I grew up with only sisters, so it was even more enlightening to view her insights. Here's the link:

Dear mums of smelly, unmotivated, lazy, moody and confused 14-year-old boys

I had a laugh while reading but also lots of "Oh, so THAT'S why he does that".

[Sophie-RO]

Thanks for sharing @Mitzi! Can anyone else relate?

[readthemanual]

Thanks! @Mitzi

I remembered how my younger brother was when he was a teen with laughters!

[tenacious_dad]

I am not a mum (obviously!) but I definitely relate as a single dad to how strange 15 & 16 year old boys are. Especially disappearing milo tins, or more often the case nutella jars! 

Even as a dad you still only have a dim recollections of what it was like at their age. I guess I should cut them a bit more slack when they "forget" every single day to pack/unpack the dishwasher 

Thanks @Mitzi 

[HalleysComet]

Ha! Imagine all those disappearing Milo tins across the country!

[Sophie-RO]

Though I do think girls can contribute to the downing of Milo just as much!

[MeJane]

I also grew up with only sisters, and almost all girl cousins - now the next generation in our family are almost all boys. My sister and all the girl cousins had/are having boys.

I love the very practical list at the end for helping with teenage boys.

Also I love the great insight into why gaming is so appealing to teenage boys,
"If you are struggling with your son's gaming passion, knowing that it ticks all his passions – fun, risk taking, winning, making dopamine, playing with others and having people who like him share the experience – maybe you could try my 10 Agreements for Healthy Balance".

This is a good find, thanks for sharing @Mitzi

[waldo_pepper]

That's a great page, thanks Mitzi.

Even though it's not "targeted" at dads, I see a lot of good old common sense and some great background info there. My Mr 19 was a very difficult young man in his early teens, very difficult indeed. He was "asked to seek his future education" at another school by his then current high school and generally devoid of direction it seemed. Couple this with severe, properly diagnosed through brain scans, ADHD and it's not a good package. Sport, a couple of good mates and unconditional love from his parents slowly worked things out for him and he settled right down by mid year 11, doing well enough in his HSC to study law. He is close to the top of his group at uni too, a real turn around.

So other parents, when you wonder what will the future be for your difficult, listless, irresponsible teen boy there is hope. You need to give him unconditional love as the major thing IMHO. Then I'd suggest helping him to find a passion, sport, Scouting etc. Good luck!

[Sophie-RO]

Wonderful to hear the story of you son @waldo_pepper - thanks for sharing... Some great ideas there... Cheers

[Murgatroyd]

So agree. I still remember vividly how surprised I was by how much my teenage daughter and her friends ate!