It’s so easy to love those kids of ours when they are little.
When the biggest issue tends to be bedtime or that their shirt has tags on it or that they don’t want to leave the park or read that book. It’s easy to look at them and to tell them how much you love them.
Our older kids, our teens, they need this just as much. Especially in this variable filled world.
They need our love, our reassurance maybe even more.
All these school shootings have rocked my mom heart to its core. I keep struggling with “why?” and so much anger at the fact that they keep happening. And then, then I think of my own kids. Some grown and gone, but one in high school and two in middle school right now, and I think, “did I say ‘I love you’ to them before they left for school?”
Did I get busy? Or did I just get after them?
Frustrated that their homework is behind or that they left their clothes on the bathroom floor or that they are so so sullen and crabby? And then I think about all those parents who will never get the chance to say “I love you” to their kids again. And it slaps me across my mom face.
Wake up. That’s what I want to tell myself.
Be their constant.
The constant, the one who is ALWAYS there.
Our kids need to know they are loved. Especially those older kids of ours. That age is so hard and I know I just get so frustrated by the hard place of parenting teens. It’s so crazy that it makes me want to go in my room with a pint of ice cream and turn on Netflix at nights. But I can’t, we can’t. We have to keep showing up for them.
Even if they are silent.
Even if they think we are the worst or annoying or frustrating.
Even if it makes us so worn.
They need to know that NO MATTER WHAT we are there for them. No matter what.
Being a teen is hard, complicated, frustrating and scary. Being a teen in a world of school shootings is even scarier.
Don’t let a day go by without telling your kids you love them. Our kids, they really desperately need that love.
They need us to tell them, “I love you” even if they don’t know or are too stubborn to tell it back.
You have an amazing spot in their lives. You are the CONSTANT. The person your kids can come home to and trust to be there. The person who still gets up day after day even after doors are slammed and loves them. The person who picks them up even if they don’t say a word.
You are the constant. And because you are the constant YOU GIVE THEM SAFETY and LOVE.
Be there. No matter what.
Be their constant.
It is the greatest gift.
~Rachel
