Teens Vs Toddlers

Who is harder, teens or toddlers?

Living in both worlds I can tell you they are equally challenging. Toddlers are pretty sure they are old enough to make their own decisions. Well, guess what? So do teens!

Toddlers are going to throw a fit and teens will roll their eyes.

Toddlers will try your patience again and again, and so will teens.

They are all the same. They all create a parents need to stay in the game of parenting. They each bring a unique awareness we need to be on our knees seeking God for strength to parent today, tomorrow, and the next hour!

Don't be the parent of a toddler that is waiting for this little one to get older so parenting will get easier. Because if you wait for that...you will be sadly mistaken.

Parenting toddlers will drain you physically and teens will drain you emotionally. But when you are drained physically the emotions will soon follow AND when you are drained emotionally the physical will follow soon. THEY are the SAME!

Might as well face it now that this job of parenting does not end. So stop looking for the easy days. I mean that with all gentleness! There will be good days and bad days.

We have gotten ourselves off track thinking that they will be completely trained and never have another problem with that issue in our home again! Because as a mom of 8 from 19 - 2, this WILL roll around again one way or another!

I love what I heard years ago. Training is ONGOING! It doesn't say in Scripture when your kids are trained, past tense. It says to train your children, that implies ONGOING!

Don't let your toddler or teen exasperate you! YOU were chosen by God to serve in this position, with THIS child to raise him/her for the Lord. Raising kids to honor our heavenly Father will be no easy task. And it will surely take more than one week to train!!! So take a deep breath, put on your heavenly responses and lets get in the trenches and train our teens and toddlers.

God's greatest gift was allowing us to not experience this alone!

Just turn your head and you will find another parent in the same struggles, battles, and frustrations as you. But in a blink of an eye we will all wonder where the days have gone. Time to engage....