Sympathy for ...

I’m writing this on my lunch hour today at work, since I have not written since a week ago. It has been a busy week.

Last Wednesday afternoon I took a half day off of work to drive to Hudson, to visit with our daughter and her family. I needed to go to a training on Thursday in the Mendota Heights. ACS office (for work) and since Mendota Heights is only ½ hr. drive from Dawn and Bob’s home, it affords me the chance to spend time with them. I took Friday off also, so that Dawn and I could spend the day together while the kids were in school.

We had a good visit. I always come away feeling so sorry for our daughter, in all that she has going on in her life, I wonder how she handles it all and I worry about her. Her husband is a pilot, so he is gone a lot, and she often feels like she’s a “single Mom”. I do know, that when Bob and were raising our children, my life was much the same as hers, and somehow I was able to get through it to the “other side” and I must just have faith that she will too. She and Bob have a spread of 9 years between their two children, and isn’t it funny that between Dawn and our second child we also had a spread of 9 years! This means that they must parent a teenager at the same time as they are parenting a 6 year old. (We had two small ones to parent at the same time as Dawn being a teen). Although, I must say that I think a 6-year-old girl is much harder to parent than two small boys! Girls seem to be harder to parent than boys, when they are young. One thing that helped me to survive, was that I was not employed full time after the two boys came along. Also, my husband was home each evening. Dawn is dealing with the age spread, a husband that is not home every evening and a full time job!

There were issues with the teen when I was there, and while I am close to Skylar, I think he ignored my advice because it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He thought that I would side with him. Now, I have been trying to reach him since I got home to talk with him again, and he is ignoring my phone messages.

I pray for all parents who are going through rough times with teens these days, and pray for the teens also. It’s hard to make teens understand that as parents, the number one thought on their mind is what is best for them, even if it’s not what the teen wants to hear.

My daughter and her family are always on my husband’s mind, and mine, but this week we will be spending overtime hours thinking and praying for them.