Crash Course In Taking Care of Teenagers
If you don 't have kids, then you understand that life is pretty much on your terms. You get up when you want. You eat when you want. You take a nap when you want. You go to bed when you want. And your house is pretty darn quiet unless you are making noise in it. But, I 've come to learn that it all goes to shit when you have teenagers in the house.
I 'm 37 and I don 't have kids, but my best friend has three of them - ages 13, 14, and 16. She lives on the other side of the country and her parents live in my city.
She sent her kids to her parents last week, but unfortunately a family death occurred where she lives and her parents had to fly home to her for just over a week - so she asked me to look …show more content…
In other words, I haven 't been around her kids too much. Certainly not alone.
In any case, without hesitation I said I would look after them, but I was a little scared.
Okay, I was A LOT scared!
Here I Go...
My friend 's parents booked a flight the same morning of the death, so I had a 15-minute crash course around what to do with the kids as their grandparents tried to pack and catch their breath.
I acted like I was totally cool so that they could just focus on packing and getting out of the house, but I knew that I had no idea what I was doing.
Here 's what was going through my head:
I don 't know what the kids can do or not do
I don 't know what the kids eat or don 't eat
I don 't know if they can really cook for themselves or …show more content…
Their father asked the kids to come see him even though their grandmother told him that he couldn 't have them until we were settled in. I was totally unaware of that, so I let him have them and ended up regretting it the minute I dropped it off. I just knew that something was wrong, and because I was stressed about it, I felt like I would be stressing out my friend and her parents at an already stressful time.
Without going into too many details - I was told to have them home early by the grandparents, and I upset their mother because - well, an ex-husband who is an idiot was purposely going against her wishes - and it ended up being a super stressful night.
At the end of the night, when the kids were dropped off, the father had the kids surround me and then asked me if he could see them more...after I had been told not to let him have them anymore.
The kids all stared at me in expectation, and I have never been so on the spot as I was then.
I took their father outside and fought with him about his lack of responsibility and compassion. And, I ticked off the kids as they tried to work through their feelings of wanting to see their father but having me humming and hawing because I wasn 't supposed to let
If you don 't have kids, then you understand that life is pretty much on your terms. You get up when you want. You eat when you want. You take a nap when you want. You go to bed when you want. And your house is pretty darn quiet unless you are making noise in it. But, I 've come to learn that it all goes to shit when you have teenagers in the house.
I 'm 37 and I don 't have kids, but my best friend has three of them - ages 13, 14, and 16. She lives on the other side of the country and her parents live in my city.
She sent her kids to her parents last week, but unfortunately a family death occurred where she lives and her parents had to fly home to her for just over a week - so she asked me to look …show more content…
In other words, I haven 't been around her kids too much. Certainly not alone.
In any case, without hesitation I said I would look after them, but I was a little scared.
Okay, I was A LOT scared!
Here I Go...
My friend 's parents booked a flight the same morning of the death, so I had a 15-minute crash course around what to do with the kids as their grandparents tried to pack and catch their breath.
I acted like I was totally cool so that they could just focus on packing and getting out of the house, but I knew that I had no idea what I was doing.
Here 's what was going through my head:
I don 't know what the kids can do or not do
I don 't know what the kids eat or don 't eat
I don 't know if they can really cook for themselves or …show more content…
Their father asked the kids to come see him even though their grandmother told him that he couldn 't have them until we were settled in. I was totally unaware of that, so I let him have them and ended up regretting it the minute I dropped it off. I just knew that something was wrong, and because I was stressed about it, I felt like I would be stressing out my friend and her parents at an already stressful time.
Without going into too many details - I was told to have them home early by the grandparents, and I upset their mother because - well, an ex-husband who is an idiot was purposely going against her wishes - and it ended up being a super stressful night.
At the end of the night, when the kids were dropped off, the father had the kids surround me and then asked me if he could see them more...after I had been told not to let him have them anymore.
The kids all stared at me in expectation, and I have never been so on the spot as I was then.
I took their father outside and fought with him about his lack of responsibility and compassion. And, I ticked off the kids as they tried to work through their feelings of wanting to see their father but having me humming and hawing because I wasn 't supposed to let