The Teenage Brain

What happens to it???  The teenage brain is a phenomenon!  It's called "hormones"!   I have yet to understand it even though I was a teenager once.  Milestones are reached one moment and in the next moment everything that you thought that they learned is gone - vanished into thin air.  All I have to say is that I can trust in the Lord to use every circumstance to grow character in them and me.

When my kids were little, adorable, huggable, and the apple of my eye, I never believed that they could turn into the "typical teenager".   I worked with teenagers in my church youth group and many of them had major attitudes.  I knew without a doubt that my kids would NEVER be like that because we were teaching them to be respectful and obedient.  HA HA!! 

 I'm telling you something switches in their brains that triggers the disrespectful, forgetful, spacey, angry, selfish, and "my parents don't know anything" area!  Those darn hormones!!  Now of course they are not like this ALL the time - there are moments of that adorable, huggable, sweet person, otherwise we would probably kill them all before they reach adulthood!  But when they act in the typical teenager mode, I think to myself "Wow, what happened to them??  I can't believe he or she is behaving like that!" 

In this picture Brandon is 11, Brittany is 9 and Brooke is 6.  Aren't they cute!  This is right before the brain change.  I loved it when they were these ages! Brandon and Brittany are "tweens" on the verge of becoming teenagers! Brooke is still adorable as ever!

Brandon at 11!

Brandon is now 15 and in the prime of being a teenager.  Without going into very many specifics, I just have to say that I hope one day we look back on the many conflicts and struggles that we've had in the last two years and laugh!  When he turned 13 "it" (the brain change) happened for him almost overnight!  His birthday is in July and from that month to about January he grew about 5 inches and gained 35 pounds.  Now at the time, I had no idea what was happening physically day by day, but now looking back I see it all very clearly and understand the irritable attitude that took place almost daily.  I tell him he was just "crabby" all the time. 

Then he turned 14, and something switched in his brain again, and he became "silly"!  Everyday during school he was running around laughing, and trying to do anything he could to make the girls laugh.  I kept telling him he went from "crabby to silly"!  I loved that he was happy, BUT it wasn't good for getting school work done. 

Here he is at 15!  What a change!

Then came 15!  This year has been a complete combination of "crabby and silly"!  For a few days he's irritable and arguementive about everything, and then a switch takes place and he's as silly as can be!  It's very unpredicable and challenging to know what it will be each day!  There has been many days of just talking, counseling, advising, and praying, where it seems that's all we do that day!  At the end of the day I am usually thankful that I homeschool and have the time with them to talk, counsel, and pray.    But I'm telling you, during the heat of the moment, I would love to rush them over to school so I don't have to deal with it one more time!

Brittany is 9 here!

Then there's Brittany who turned 13 last April.  But for girls the teenage mind really starts at 12!  Because I am a female, it's a little easier for me to understand her emotions and her bodily changes.  Since she turned 12 she has grown about 5 inches, gained about 25 pounds, and has changed from looking like little girl to a young lady.  Right now at 13 and 1/2 she is as tall as me (5 ft. 5 in.).

Brittany is 13 here! 

She has been completely different than Brandon in her attitude.  Instead of arguing, she just cries and rolls her eyes.   There have been many tears  and looks of "mom you're the worst person in the world to do this to me"!  Boys and girls are so different.  Boys get the rush of testosterone which creates anger, and girls get the rush of estrogen which just makes them emotional.

And then there's the forgetfulness (Brandon is the KING of forgetfulness and I will be writing a post about that soon), spaceyness, pickyness, stubborness, and "I just want to be with my friends-ness"!  As if it's not bad enough to have the attitude, add all these things to it, and it's an exhausting season of life for parents.  Now I understand why parents of teenagers always look exasberated.  I'm sure I look like that now!  I tell the kids once in awhile that there's the scripture in the Bible that says "parents do not exaserbate your children", but there should also be a scripture that says "children do not exaserbate you parents"!!

The GOOD news of this season of learning  is that I've really understood the love of Jesus for his children!   It's only the love of a parent that can forgive the actions of a teenager day in and day out!   My heart melts when they come to me and say "I'm so sorry for being disrespectful" and they give me a hug!  There is no way that I can stay angry at them because the power of  love is stronger!  "The greatest of these is LOVE" (1 Cor. 13:13)! Jesus does the same for me every day even when I don't deserve it at all!  I'm so thankful to be His child!  And I am so thankful that He gives me the power to love the teenagers in our household with their hormonal brains!!