Things are finally official, so I can announce our news.
We are adding another child to our family!
But not in the traditional sense. And not in the longterm sense either.
What?
We are going to add a teenager to our household. No, it’s not some weird Benjamin Button experiment, because how does that even work? We will be hosting a foreign exchange student from Germany for a whole year!
She comes sometime this summer. We’ve been emailing back and forth and she is a delight. An absolute delight. I can’t wait to have her in our family.
I feel strange because neither Ryan nor I are even 30 years old yet, but we are about to be ‘parents’ to a 16 year old. We have to make rules and stick to them. Real rules. Not just, “Wash the peanut butter from your hands before you run around the house like a crazy person.” (Although, that might be a rule we should cover in addition to teenager rules.) But we have to make real rules like, “Come home at this time. Get your homework done. No boys in the bedroom.” Scary!
We have to evaluate her friends and make sure they are good influences on her. Right? Isn’t that something parents of teenagers do?
We also have to register her for high school. I haven’t even had my 10 year reunion yet!
We have to very quickly decide what kind of expectations we have for older children in our home and get going on that!
If anybody has any advice (NICE advice, please), feel free to give it. If you have a great book on teenager development and mentalities, feel free to share the title with me.
And wish us luck!
{ 5 comments }
To begin with, she will probably not give you a bit of trouble. After all, she already has a lot going for her as an exchange student, so don’t get too concerned before you meet her. Also, she is probably aware that your family culture and hers may be different and she will be prepared for that and you need to be also. I wonder if her parents have read your blog especially this one. Do they know you are barely not teenagers yourselves without any experience with teenagers other than being one. Don’t worry or think too hard about this until she gets here. I think your biggest problem will be having another schedule to worry about.
That is so exciting!!!! Wondering when it was gonna happen, after the 3 phone calls i got to “evaluate” you guys as parents!!! ( and of course I told them you guys would be absolutely perfect “Parents”) You’ll have to let me know all the advice you’ll learn for raising teenagers!!
Good Luck with Everything!
My parents let me hang out with you even though you were a bad influence!
Wow! That’s exciting! Will you have to learn German??
This sounds scary to me, but probably because I barely am surviving my two kiddos! LOL
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