You cannot scare me I am the mother of two teenagers!
As the mother of two daughters who are only two years apart, I am witnessing my share of teenage drama. Thanks to enforced WFH.
They say, raising boys makes a mother hair turn gray, in my experience raising daughters makes us bald.
I have a free fashion consultant around the clock at my disposal. Teenage girls will convince you to ditch that eye shadow and the favorite perfume, in the name of trend.
I have learnt to hold my bladder while my daughter and her besties confiscate the bathroom to take duck face selfies to post on Instagram.
My daughters have also tricked me into spending my entire bonus on a new wardrobe which I never got to see, and they borrow every bit of my wardrobe, down to my favorite purse and shoes.
Forget spending extra money on cable connection, I have my own live dramas like the cattiness on Netflix series appearing every night in my living room. I just need to grab some popcorn and enjoy the show.
Teenage daughters will teach you lots of patience, while chauffeuring and waiting for hours, I keep some aspirin on the go, do not know when I would need it.
I have learnt how to perfect a ‘fake’ smile and ‘hide’ the inquisitiveness when the first boy came calling… and all the investigation and research that followed, a worried mother does better research than the FBI!!
I have learnt to sleep profoundly with all the noises from the mid night cooking, zoom parties and loud carefree laughterÂ’s.
Sure, teenagers are complicated, messy, unpredictable, irritating, and demanding, but they are also creative, hilarious, strong, aware, and brave. They have budding dreams, incredible potential, and an entire array of character traits and talents that are forming and evolving at a rapid speed.
Yes, it is hard raising teens. It is filled with a relentless pace of keeping up with their busy schedules and teaching them responsibility along with every other discipline that comes with growing up.
It is exhausting and worrisome and there are a ton of hard-fought battles along the way, but my gosh, itÂ’s exhilarating and exciting too.
Within the terrifying task of slowly letting go, we get to see what they do when we surrender our control and allow them to do life on their own with increasing trust and hopeful assurance.
There may be great failure and hard falls, but there is also an awakening to new strengths and important life-lessons learned that can only come from both.
It’s these years where the most powerful growth occurs in all of ‘US’. And although there are a lot of twists and turns and free-flying falls, it is a remarkable ride!
It is at this point that the wonder of it all comes alive. I have experienced the incomprehensible joy in watching my kids grow up. I got to enjoy my older kids on an entirely new level of relating and they are so much fun to be around.
We have such limited time with our kids, safely tugged under our wings, and this last stage is when we teach them how to fly. It takes a ton of patience, a good dose of acceptance, and an exorbitant amount of effort.
This is when we get to experience the jaw-dropping, heart-aching, breath-taking, mind-blowing wonder of it all.
As a child, my daughter used to stomp around the home in my high-heeled shoes and pretend to be ‘me’. As an adult, she will fill those shoes and become the woman I am proud to call MY BEST FRIEND!!
PS: My experiences and observations have got amplified due to working from home, giving me this opportunity to appreciate my smart, beautiful teenage daughters, Manya and Manavi.
Reference: Lot of Parenting websites and related articles.
Biography of the Author
Usha Srivastava is an enthusiastic, result oriented Human Resource professional with two decades of work experience in Strategic HR and in executing HR best practices for aligning the OrganizationÂ’s business objectives with maximizing the employee potential. She honestly believes in fostering positive work environment that promotes employee morale by developing interpersonal relationships within all levels of the organization, utilizing attentiveness, trust, and respect.
HER Motto: Everybody has their own journeys, with problems to solveÂ… lessons to learnÂ…but most of all, EXPERIENCES TO ENJOY!
She has been instrumental in strategizing and leading several organizations to the list of Top 100 Great places to work (GPTW) in India.
She has successfully led teams in Identifying, developing, deploying & retaining talent in large organizations. In the current role as Cluster HR Head, Vodafone Idea, Delhi, she is actively involved in the pre- and post-merger activities. In the process introduced new / Digital ways of doing things in HR & Admin operations extensively. Played a pivotal role in creating a ‘1 Team - 1 Dream’ campaign for the merged entity. Was diligently involved in the re-structuring and re-energization of the organization.
She is also a certified Leadership and Motivation Trainer, and strongly believe in the key relationship between Human Resource Development and Organization Success.
