Does that sentence bring you anxiety? It sure does me. Trust is such an interesting word. When they are little you think…
“Oh I can’t wait until I can trust them in the bathtub alone.”
“Oh I can’t wait until I can trust them to stay home alone for an hour.”
Then the teen years begin to creep up on you. They do creep. They come out of nowhere. Cell phones, texting, snapchat, Instagram, facebook, secret apps, secret codes, secrets! And now your thinking…
“Can I trust them to stay home alone?”
“Can I trust them to get the phone, social media, app, ect.?”
“If I go to sleep early for a work meeting, can I trust that they would go to bed on time without staying up all night (and it’s a school night)?”
And then it happens. They mess up! The horror of it!! No, seriously. They are getting adult bodies and attitudes, and their brains haven’t caught up as fast as they think it has. So sometimes they just mess up. So what does that mean. Does it mean you can’t ever go to sleep again? How long do you take away the phone, social media, texting for one mess up? How do you know??
I have decided that “mom you can trust me” is perhaps one of the scariest things a teenager can say to you.
