It’s not the eye rolls or heavy sighs. Or even the annoyed grunts.

That’s not the hardest part about parenting teenagers.

Sure, we laugh about it. We joke about messy rooms and empty pantries and missing phone chargers and horrible attitudes. Then sometimes people jump in with advice about consequences or make comments about “kids these days.”

But it turns out, no one’s talking about the REAL stuff. The hardest stuff.

And that’s that my teenager is grown up enough to be living a REAL life. And for the most part, I can’t control any of it.

Friend relationships and unfair coaches and unreasonable teachers (or reasonable teachers and pretty poor grades) and romantic endeavors and all the other drivers on the road at 11:25pm five minutes before curfew. Plus, the snow! A little ice on the road has never been so terrifying!

Not to mention ACT tests and college applications and real, grown-up adult life right around the corner.

Sometimes I wish I could serve up a snack and turn on Wild Krats. But it wouldn’t help.

Really, there’s almost nothing I can do. Except stand there. Just BE there. Loving as hard as I can…from there. Hands entirely off the wheel.

I always thought the attitudes would be the hardest part. But that’s not it at all.

It’s the LIFE part. My teenager is living a whole entire life.

And it’s everything I’ve ever wanted for him!

But standing beside him while he lives it out is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to never really do.

I’d love to share my new book with you! Everything I Wish I Could Tell You About Midlife: A Woman’s Guide to Health in the Body You Actually Have