Raising Teens Poem by Connie Webb

You can make all the plans you want
Doesn’t mean all will go your way
You can motivate them with your words
Doesn’t mean you will have the last say.

Your plans for them to go to college
Doesn’t mean they will do what you want them to do
You can try to mold them and shape them
Doesn’t mean they will follow through.

You can work hard all those years
Doesn’t mean you are the best parent out there
You can still blow up over little things
Doesn’t mean you are the worst parent to bear.

Try accepting your kids as they are
As each new day things can change
Some days they appear on the right path
Other days they just seem strange.

Sometimes they don’t look like your kids at all
Where did they learn to talk like that?
Sometimes they drive you up the wall
With some teenagers that’s a fact.

Keep your humor and your wit
That will help you through
Especially those early mornings
When they say, “I’m not doing what you want me to.”

But there will be days that impress you
When they bring you breakfast in bed
Those are days your will know they are “your kids”
Remember those kinds of days instead.

Remember the times they made you laugh
Forget the days they made you cry
Because they do grow up so fast
And it is so hard to say good-bye.