"Just Wait Until They Are Teenagers!"

I have a pet peeve.

Surprising, I know!

But I do.

I hate it when people see a family with young kids (especially if there is a Colony of them;), look at them as if they are crazy, and say, "Oh just you WAIT until they become teenagers."

Or maybe they hear me talking about the rough day I've had with the constant whines and fussing and whisper a comment under their breathe, belittling the stresses of life with small children, about how they WISH that all they had to worry about were wiping butts and a little crying.

As if I don't know that the teenage years are difficult.
For the parents just as much as for the teenagers! (Can I get an AMEN!)

As if the rough day I've had doesn't compare to the rough day they have had with their teenager.
OK, so it DOESN'T compare, but that doesn't mean that it isn't difficult when you are in the middle of it.

But that is like telling an elementary school student that her 3-digit addition problem isn't hard, just wait until physics!  "Stop your whining and do the problem."

You don't start out in physics people!  You start out learning the numbers first.

I'm in "elementary parenting" right now, and my problems are all that I can handle right now.  I haven't learned the next step.  We all just have to learn the next season as our kids enter that season.

That doesn't mean that I am anticipating an easy road during the adolescent years, though.
(God knows the hell I put my own parents through.)

I know parenting isn't easy.

Just like our Adoption wasn't easy.

Just like marriage isn't easy!

But it is worth it!

If you are a more seasoned mother, try encouraging the younger moms around you.  Of course there is always room to speak truth and reality, but to discourage us before we are even at that stage, as if we think the next parenting season is going to be a walk in the park, is discourages and brings fear, more than confidence in Christ, who equips us with everything we need for every stage of life.