Who am I?

It’s a question we all ask ourselves daily, if not hourly.

And for those of us born post-2000, in a time where denim on denim was socially acceptable and we convinced our moms to buy us a $40 sequin puppy shirt from Justice (my goodness why did you guys say yes?), this question seems to have no answer.

Perhaps it’s because we think we have no escape or solitude to ponder the answer. Our phones follow us home, magnetized to our hands as we fall asleep and glued to our eyes when we wake.

Culture remains our closest confidant. Instagram, TikTok and even Pinterest are just tools of comparison – that pesky thief of joy.

When my kids were younger and we first started traveling together as a family, it was a heavy lift for me as a mom. I had to pack each suitcase individually to avoid arriving with mismatched winter clothes at a beach, no underwear, and an odd assortment of broken toys and open food packages.

In reflecting on my own parenting style (and being a Baylor nurse!), I’ve adopted the following

Each summer for the last decade, I’ve spent extensive time with teens volunteering as a camp nurse. This time is precious to me as I get the luxury of heart-to-heart talks about the issues they are struggling to handle in the realities of 21st-century teen culture.

In the early days of parenting when physical exhaustion is a constant albatross around your neck, it can be easy to throw some of these times away or even resent the obligations surrounding these parental duties. The words “tuck yourself in” or an exasperated “really?!” have been known to escape my lips at a nightly request.

Are you brave enough to do a parenting gut check today? Is your kids’ room a trainwreck? Maybe yours is too. Is your teen too assertive and challenges authority? Maybe you do too.

When I tell people I’m the mom of four teens at once, inevitably I get responses ranging from wide-eyed, meme-worthy head tilts to frank expressions of sympathy and prayers. The most common reaction I hear is joking.