In the pursuit of Living your Vision now I hope I’ve never given the impression anything is perfect in my life or that I am perfect.
I’m a work in progress like anyone, and particularly as a parent.
The teenage years throw up challenges and situations you can barely conceive of when you have a cute 3 year old dancing around to Iggle Piggle or jumping up and down to Peppa Pig.
Slowly but surely you allow them to make decisions for themselves in the clothes they want or the friends they make.
You allow them to take steps to go out without you or stay home alone.
You listen as they bring other people’s values and opinions to you and watch them form their own. They might be very different to yours.
They aren’t always pleasant and their hormonal highs and lows can be a rollercoaster for everyone.
I’ve always tried to bring the best parts of my parent’s parenting skills, but also recognise that my treasures live in a world that is alien to my 70s/80s upbringing. What worked then isn’t necessarily fit for purpose now. Our children face different pressures. They are exposed to different challenges. They have increased opportunities of what to do with their life, but at the same time the future looks bleak with various conflicts around the world, post pandemic fall out, the pressures of the giant human experiment that is social media and with an ever encroaching climate crisis.
I look for ways to support my girls the best way I can.
I don’t always get it right.
They don’t always get it right.
Different ways of meeting their needs work for each of them differently because they are very different people.
It is an exciting time in lots of ways because they are stretching, growing and expanding into who they are.
It’s amazing to hear them appreciate your efforts as they learn to articulate it in a more profound way.
The time they make you their first cup of tea because they want to give to you is a great milestone.
Those times when you can enjoy their company and smile to yourself about who they are becoming.
When I dedicated the book to my treasures, I wanted to thank them for ’challenging me to be a better person and rewarding me in ways they will never know.’
As a Tween/Teen I was an avid diary keeper. It helped me process all that teenage angst, self consciousness and the challenges of teenage relationships.
I created the
BE YOUR OWN BEST FRIEND JOURNAL for Teens and Tweens because working through the events of their day and focusing on what was good about it, and them, can help them gain a healthy perspective of the world. I know because whilst it wasn’t guided, those pages of writing helped me through so many difficult times and were a great record of all the highlights.(In a time before we used Snapchat/Insta/TikTok to do it)
Reading my old diaries recently, I saw that sometimes I didn’t find peace or see the good in a day because it was more a flow of all the things that were in my head. This journal gives them prompts and coaching questions to find the solution or get the help they might need. It allows them to end the day with a positive focus.
Full disclosure, I can’t guarantee my treasures will use it, but I will leave it with them as one resource of many to help them make sense of their world and to build a healthy self acceptance and love.
I decided to publish it on Amazon in order for you to offer to your Teen or Tween too.
I will be sending the profit of the first 100 sales to Save the Children who work on the ground with young people in places like Ukraine πΊπ¦, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen etc.
Please use the link below to purchase. π₯°π²
