Open letter to my eleventeen year old and her peers.

Dear teenager,

  This is the hardest time in your life. Adults should really cut you more slack. It's a really bizarre place to feel like you can't emotionally miss your mommy and at the same time be tough and strong and independent. Not a baby but you're not an adult. Your emotions and your hormones are running rampant and your life is basically a catastrophe. Your friendships are all being put to the test because all of you are raging hormonal idiots. Boys stink. Girls are motional basketcases. How on earth do we make it to adulthood? How on earth do we make it through this trying time in one piece with any friends left? We rage and rage against literally nothing but our own frustrations. Being a teenager is a nightmare.

 This is a time when you feel like no one is taking you seriously and you can say everything it's in your head and it'll never come out the right way. And if anybody respects you and really treats you like a grown-up you start to miss being treated special like a little kid. You're in between stage and nothing makes sense. All you know that you just want to grow up get out of your parents house yada yada yada yada. Also "when I grow up I'll be nothing like so-and-so and such such".

My dear teenager. Just know that everyone goes through this passage. Most make it out alive. And everyone is better for the lessons they learn teenhood even though it seems like the struggle is stupid. All the drama all the friendships all the arguments all the fights with your parents. Those will all be worth it eventually when you're grown-up. When you have a teenager of your own, you will literally hear your parents words coming through your mouth and your very own teenagers will roll their eyes and sigh dramatically because now you "will never understand what they are going through". That déjà vu in itself is just as dramatic as what you're going through as a teenager. I promise.

 With your body changing and all the things you're learning in health class being so disgustingly real, we should probably just give you breathing room to vent and try not to point and laugh when you're hysterical. Because even though we think what you're crying about screaming about laughing about maniacally being crazy about, is super stupid and pathetic and trivial. That doesn't mean it's not the end of the world type of important to you. As grown-ups we should try to pull from our memory banks and recall what it was like to be you. Remember what it was like to be teased or taunted for having big boobs when you're sixth-grader. Or be laughed at in gym class if you are a boy because you're skinny and small and in jock minds inadequate. The world is cruel almost all the time in different ways. But I feel like it's the most cruel to a teenager. Not only are things complicated, but dammit nobody understands you! since we were once just like you we should try to remember and try to understand you.

Sincerely,
Some teens Mom


Ps. And grownups, if were nicer to our youth maybe we can expect them to be nicer to each other.

I just wanna read your diary. I can admit it.

 I didn't have a real finger on the pulse until I just surfed around a shitload of November posts that all said the same message. Here was the list of coincidences that made it click for my brain:

• all Moms
• all actively appreciative of motherhood
• all crafters/crafty
• all self employed/stay at home mommas
• all sadly slightly fed up sounding about blogs
• all feeling like they are ready for a wave of change

 Me too. I have more drafts started and paused than I do live posts this last few months. My head swims with real life and I wonder rarely if it's blog worthy. I stopped reading a few of my favorites because the life went out of them and the DIY took over. Don't get me wrong, I am HELLA into DIY. I guess talking it out via tutorials is feeling played out for me. We really do have pinterest at our fingertips for that. I want to know you all again. Read about all the nosey personal things I love about you and your family and your pets even! I need it to be personal. I need my people. My real life people. I gotta feel like I could be your neighbor or at least crazy parent buddy at school drop off/pick up.I know I am needy. But I also know that's what I want my readers to be too. So if I am not feelin it, I can't bring myself to post it.

 That being said, I do search out the tutorials I need because I refuse to take my sewing machine in for service to be told I threaded it wrong. Again. So YAY YOUTUBE!!! Whoop whoop!

 I know my motivation started lacking when life got way harder. And when my feelings started to get too heavy and the comedy felt forced. I try my damndest to laugh in dark times. Or I might die of heartache. My wants were quickly being overshadowed by my needs, no, not mine, my kids needs. As it should be of course. Blogging starts to feel selfish or even petty. And real fresh air sound so damn good when life gets crazy. A bright ass monitor and a blinking cursor can't often compete.

  I miss it. And I miss you, my bloggettes that are feeling what I am feeling. The doldrums are real. I hope we bounce back after some of this novelty blogging fades. I think it will. I feel this tangible vibe though and I am glad I wasn't alone but the fact that it's a catching thing is scaring me a bit. There is definitely a happy medium. There is something to be said about actually enjoying the craft while you make it, with real people and not just staging a perfect set of photos and looking forward to the blog post about said craft. And maybe we should lean more toward living without having our phones in our pockets at all times, like the olden days. Maybe we would enjoy moments more if we weren't busy filtering and cropping them. A little digital burnout is trending.



I will go back to jotting funny stories and posting them when I have time. There are some waiting I really should get to. I'll try if you'll try. I wanna read your diary again. I can openly confess it. And when spring rolls around and I post pictures of my garden, I want ya'll to be like "Damn Girl!! Nice Kale!". I want to get back to the normal blogging we had. OK? OK.




Love you, Mean it.