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Wednesday, October 18. 2023

I got this idea while walking around the mall with my friend Beth a couple of weeks ago. I cannot remember the last time I walked the mall with a friend and I thought, “Oh wow, we are like teenagers!”

So, that was the idea behind this post. I am around teens all day and even though they can be annoying, especially if you have to live with them – ha! – I think they also have some lessons to teach us adults about happiness.

-Be selfish – at times. I think many of us are guilty of martyrdom or of trying to sacrifice all of our needs to make everyone else happy. I think it’s so important to take time to yourself. I used to take a day off each semester to go on one of my kids’ field trip and then I had one personal day left for me. I did a Target trip in the evening after bedtime. I had a weekly sitter in the summer so I could run some errands. There are so many different ways to “be selfish” every now and then that are important.

Spending time with a friend and taking time to fill my cup – there were lots of chores I could have been doing!

-Prioritize your friends. Friends are everything to teens. Make time to talk on the phone and make regular plans. Text silly things. Just keep up the friendships! It requires work and it can be frustrating. Start small with one friend and maybe build it in to something you and that friend already do. If you see them at a lesson or class, get coffee after. This is why happy hour after school works for Erica and I. We are both already at school and then we go somewhere. It doesn’t require a separate time.

-Be comfy. Gosh, you guys. the teens don’t wear hard pants anymore. It’s so rare to see a teen at school in something other than leggings, yoga pants/flares, sweats, or pj pants. Before it turned colder it was athletic shorts. They have so many cute athleisure things. Maybe we should also be comfier!

-Binge on Netflix, Hulu, etc. and don’t feel one bit bad about it.

-Get a fun drink. The teens and their drinks, right? They have so many cups and water bottles and it’s all about getting a drink like a Frappuccino, a Polar Pop, or a can of Celsius.

-Just go out for a drive. Sometimes you just need to get out of the house and play some good music.

-Make music listening a priority. I am guilty of choosing podcasts over just some fun music. I’m trying to use some of the fall playlists on Spotify.

-Go to the mall with friends and shop together and laugh at the offerings like these “nutcracker shorts” for the holidays.

-Be messy – for a while. I can’t stand it for very long, but sometimes it makes more sense to just wait and straighten it all at once instead of constantly spinning your wheels. Teens have absolutely no problem with a little mess, am I right?

-Be happy with a simple meal. Teens are not gourmets. They seem to be happy with a basic meal from a chain. They love Panera, Taco Bell, and Cane’s or other chicken finger places.

-Wear sneakers. Wow, is the sneaker the “it” shoe right now or what? I also see Birkenstocks and Crocs but only when worn with socks. Ha! I guess that saves needing a pedicure, right?

-Don’t carry a purse or if you do, make it a belt bag. Don’t be encumbered by so much stuff.

What else can you think of that I missed? Do you think there are lessons to be learned from our teens?

Amy

13 thoughts on “Take it from the Teens!”

  2. My boys are definitely all about listening to music; my youngest quizzes me on song titles and band names all the time (and I’m not entirely sure I ever get a passing grade). I’d rather be listening to a book or reading a book though but that might be because I rarely get to listen to music of my choosing.

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  4. Oh my gosh! You nailed it! I have a soon to be 16 yr old and these are all the things I can’t stand (the clothes or lack of them meaning all things comfortable (not lack of actual clothes haha!) when she has a closet full of “real clothes” but after reading this I am going to embrace ALL of it…,,and your right have a new mindset and apply these standards to me instead of fighting it! Thanks for giving me a new perspective on things that really are not so bad….bring on the Stanley and sweatpants…..

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  5. This was a great post! I learned a lot of these lessons myself when I was around teenagers all the time. I am happy to report that I do a lot of these! I am never willing to sacrifice comfort for style, so all of my clothes are comfortable. I have on a favorite outfit today, because it’s going to be a long day for me, and I’ll do the same for tomorrow for the same reason. (I’m leaving home today at 7:30 and will be out past 8 p.m. tonight.) Just last night, my best friend and I talked on the phone for an hour! We do this regularly, believe it or not, and we made plans to see a movie together this weekend, and we promised it would be just the two of us. I also alternate between reading a ton and binge watching shows on tv. Right now I’m on a tv show kick as I finish off a couple of shows.

    Do you do a lot of these things? I also think a great piece of advice from a teenager is to never take yourself too seriously. Laugh often and have as much fun as possible! They seem to do that, and I kind of adopted that mindset for my own life a few years ago. They always seem to be excited about something, and I try to live the same way.

    Happy hump day, my friend!

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  6. I love this post! I have a 16-year-old daughter and I feel like she has taught me so much! Her love for music, thrift store shopping, and eating Korean BBQ are a few things that come to mind that she really enjoys. She loves buying makeup and self-care products which is one thing I’m working on for myself! She’s very clean but tends to take her time putting away laundry. When I notice she has a heavy school load I’ll hang up her clothes and put them away in her drawer to help out. I could work on being more selfish… I need more clothes and she has so much! I meet up with my girlfriends every Wednesday and it’s something I always look forward to!

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  7. My youngest is 20 so I don’t have teens anymore ☹️ I agree with everything you said! I have to add sometimes a sweatshirt and a comfy pair of jeans are all you need. My girls live in big sweatshirts even when the weather warms up.

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  8. This is so interesting! Definitely true about the music. Both my kids listen constantly, and I guess I remember the days of waiting for a certain album to come out or listening to cassette tapes in my car. It’s also so interesting about the comfy clothes. Love this post!

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  9. Oh, my goodness! I’m a teenager again! OK, maybe not. I went back and reread your post, and I’m lacking in many of those things. I think the hardest one is to be selfish. The stuff has to get done, right? I mean, the timer will go off on the oven, and my husband will sit there and just let it go. The sound drives me almost as nuts as him ignoring it! After Covid, I quit with the comfy clothes to an extent because I honestly did not get dressed for months during the lockdown. That’s not to say I’m not in my pjs as soon as possible!

    I think teenagers are way underrated. I actually enjoyed my kids the most at that age because they were somewhat independent and fun to be around.

    Thanks for a fun post, Amy! I hope you’ll link it up on the Weekend Traffic Jam this Thursday (after 9:30pm) but you can also link on Friday!

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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