What I Really Needed Was Hope

I was meeting with my therapist the other day, and like we often do, we were discussing my teenagers. I have two of them, ages 16 and 13, and while I really love them, I think it would be a lie for me to say that raising them has been easy.

It’s funny really, I wrote an entire essay collection about the toddler years, and how maddening they were. But honestly, nothing has been as challenging as raising teens. It’s exhausting, and confusing at times. In moments it’s overwhelming in both in both warm emotions and frustration. But the part that I’m struggling with the most are these fears that my children, two of the people I love the absolute most, are pulling away from me, and that they will hate for the rest of their lives.