Teens

I loved reading about Piereth’s account of spending time with her son. Those were the best days … no time constraints, just being spontaneous and having fun!

My son is 16. I have great memories (like Piereth’s) about going for a walk and taking 20 minutes to walk one block because we had to follow an ant. I remember going to the park when it was 35 degrees outside (Celsius!) and running through the sprinklers that came on. I remember going for a walk in the dark (when it was freezing outside) because he got a new light sabre and wanted to pretend he was Luke Skywalker.

These fun things don’t have to end just because you have a teenager. In fact, they become more important. I just got a call from my son’s school counselor. He went to talk to her about changing a class because he wanted to try something else and, because she was easy to talk to, he ended up spending half an hour talking to her! She just wanted to let me know that he was telling her about the lectures that I take him to at our local university and that he has a great time riding bikes in the coulees with his dad. She said that she doesn’t hear from many families that do those kinds of things with their kids and that, even though he probably speaks in monosyllabic grunts a lot of the time, the times that we spend with him are important to him.

So, all you moms and dads out there who enjoy spending timewith your kids, give yourself a pat on the back. Don’t let spending money on them take the place of spending time. You’ll reap the rewards!