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Parenting A Teenager? Here Are The 5 Things You Might Want to Remember

“She’s just individuating.” “Individuating? It’s annoying!”

Katie E. Lawrence
A Parent Is Born
5 min readJan 7, 2025

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Photo By Kaboompics.com on Pexels

I’ve blocked so much of my teenage years out. It takes talking to one of the teenagers in my life to remember how horrible it was. There was so much lack of wisdom concerning friendship, fears, social anxiety, and uncertainty about the years to come.

My family went through big changes, my body went through big changes, my mind went through changes, and somehow I made it out the other end.

“She’s just indiviuating.” “Individuating? It’s annoying.”

— Carlos and Allison in Yes Day

The line above is a line in the film Yes Day that I heard the other day that stood out to me — as it accentuates so much of the struggle of the teenage years. If you’re scared, know that your teenager is probably even more terrified.

Here are a few other things that they probably want you to know:

#1: They’re afraid of getting it wrong

I think that this is best showcased through the struggle that high school seniors go through. As they prepare to walk across the stage and have their name called…

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A Parent Is Born
A Parent Is Born

Published in A Parent Is Born

Because the moment a child is born, a parent is born, too.

Katie E. Lawrence
Katie E. Lawrence

Written by Katie E. Lawrence

B.S. in Family Science, Research Assistant for the Alabama Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education, Family Life Educator, and amateur yapper. (:

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