This is me when I need to write more blog posts.
Haha! OK, not really, I don’t actually cry like a baby. But yup, I sometimes complain and whine when faced with work. Now it’s your turn. Have you even thought unhappy thoughts when you had to cook dinner? Again. Every. Night. Over. And. Over. Or have you ever felt inconsolable when faced with paying bills? That never ending, constant, and recurring torment.
So is it surprising then, when our children complain about school? Probably not. But we can hope they handle hard work as maturely as we do. We can hope they don’t wail and whine, right? We can teach them how to handle struggles and work and disappointment the way adults do. We may not always like it, but we usually get it done. Sometimes nobody even knows we are complaining inside.
Look at what you are expecting of your children. Are you expecting too much? Sometimes when they whine and complain, it’s actually for a good reason. If you were expected to work 18 hour days, that wouldn’t be reasonable, and nobody would fault you for verbalizing your displeasure. In the same way, when your teenager expresses unhappiness about their work load, look first to see if you are actually expecting too much.
Sometimes, just sometimes, our teenagers are right, and their work load really is too much to bear without crying like a baby. Other times they cry like a baby over reasonable expectations and simple assignments. Our job is too check once in a while, to make sure we aren’t asking too much. One quick way to see if they are doing too much is to estimate how many hours you expect them to work on school each day. If it’s more than 8 hours, it’s too much. If it’s less than 4 hours in high school, then it’s probably too little.
Don’t expect your teenagers to be perfect. We aren’t perfect either. Just expect them to do a reasonable amount of work, with a reasonably pleasant attitude most of the time. And assess their work load once in a while to make sure your expectations are really reasonable for teenagers.
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