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The Lord blessed my wife and I with two beautiful, intelligent, loving children.

But someone stole those wonderful loving children and replaced them with... <Gasp> teenagers.

I always thought I'd spend my son's teen years hunting with him, fishing with him, and guiding him to manhood.
I was so very wrong.

He was a bashful kid. We worried he would have issues being social. We encouraged him to be self sufficient and outgoing. Oh what have we done.
He's ended up very outgoing, with my wife's stubbornness and the temper we both had in our youth.

He's a good kid. But some days that's way down deep. I hope the Lord grants me the strength to survive the next few years, and I hope the base we gave him is enough to get him through.

Those of you who've survived this journey, my hat's off to you.

They become human again about age 20. Girls take longer. The good years are between 4-11. I was just as bad as a teen. Eventually though they produce the true joy, grandchildren. If you want joy now, get a dog. You come home from work tired, your kids don't even say hello. Your dog greets you at the door and shows true love. Have lots of dogs.

This could have been written by me a few years ago. I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

But just remember - they won't be teenagers forever. Just like the "terrible twos" that you thought you wouldn't live through, and all the other phases of growing up - this too shall pass.

In the meantime, may God bless you both. Oh, and get a good dog.

Thank you both. I have three wonderful dogs.
Two Chihuahuas and a Boston Terrier.
They give unconditional love. More so if you have treats.

My wife tells everyone she has 3 teenage boys. We have two sons, one is 13 and the other is 14.

Crossfire wrote:... I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

That is exactly where I am these days.

Our oldest began to exorcise his evil twin when he got a car. The exorcism was complete by 18. It was like an annoying caterpillar going into a cacoon exuding cranial/rectal inversion for three years, then out came this brilliant, self assured yet compassionate adult.

He never did learn how to turn lights off though. Its a handicap his mother has...

Another father of a teen here. Mine just turned 18. Things are smooth now, but her mother and I had those "man we must have been terrible parents" moments.

There were days in her junior year that I would drop her off at school and even though I loved her, I thought to myself, "I do not like that kid".

My two oldest were adults with kids of their own when my son went through most of this, and he did it differently than they did, but we had the misfortune of losing his mother right in the final throes of that stage and it made a rift that has never quite healed.

I was a glutton for punishment. We did it 5 times. Only by the grace of God did we survive. Now we are sitting back watching our kids starting to go through it with our grandkids.

Funny little story, my oldest grand daughter (13) came to spend a couple of days with us over spring break. She was telling us how her parents just didn't understand her and so on. We laughed about it to ourselves and then told my son about it for a laugh. His comment was yes, he had felt the same way when he was that age but that we as parents learned so much from the time he was 18 until he turned 20.

I'm MOST grateful to have a wife that always seems to be "in" with the kids when I'm "out" (and vice-versa). I don't see how single parents survive, honestly. Not only is the "not out of favor" parent an outlet for the kids, but taking on teenagers requires both a companion and co-conspirator ) to be successful.

Crossfire wrote:This could have been written by me a few years ago. I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

But just remember - they won't be teenagers forever. Just like the "terrible twos" that you thought you wouldn't live through, and all the other phases of growing up - this too shall pass.

In the meantime, may God bless you both. Oh, and get a good dog.

Yeah, but you still have one cross to bear; Marty.

Keith B wrote:

Crossfire wrote:This could have been written by me a few years ago. I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

But just remember - they won't be teenagers forever. Just like the "terrible twos" that you thought you wouldn't live through, and all the other phases of growing up - this too shall pass.

In the meantime, may God bless you both. Oh, and get a good dog.

Yeah, but you still have one cross to bear; Marty.

YES! The world's oldest living teenager!

Crossfire wrote:

Keith B wrote:

Crossfire wrote:This could have been written by me a few years ago. I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

But just remember - they won't be teenagers forever. Just like the "terrible twos" that you thought you wouldn't live through, and all the other phases of growing up - this too shall pass.

In the meantime, may God bless you both. Oh, and get a good dog.

Yeah, but you still have one cross to bear; Marty.

YES! The world's oldest living teenager!

If like most of us, getting "younger" each year.

Keith B wrote:

Crossfire wrote:This could have been written by me a few years ago. I had no idea how I was going to get through it, and how I could have failed so miserably as a parent.

But just remember - they won't be teenagers forever. Just like the "terrible twos" that you thought you wouldn't live through, and all the other phases of growing up - this too shall pass.

In the meantime, may God bless you both. Oh, and get a good dog.

Yeah, but you still have one cross to bear; Marty.

I was so confused by that post at first.
I was trying to figure out why I was a cross for Crossfire to bear, until I realized that must be her husband's name too.