Episode 44 - Helen Wills - Parenting teens, and convincingother parents not to fear teenagers

In Helen's words:  When my oldest child was 7, I had a vision of her at 14, and I was terrified. I thought my feisty daughter was going to be unmanageable by the time she was a teenager, and I didn’t imagine how I would cope. What I didn’t realise was that growing up isn’t linear - it’s incremental in so many beautiful twists and turns. And the child you get at 14 is never the one you expect at 7.  Helen Wills is an award-winning UK family lifestyle blogger. She started her blog Actually Mummy in 2011, when she realised that talking to the four walls and a baby was never going to be enough. Since then she’s charted her (often hilarious) encounters with her children, right up until the present day, when they are no longer funny. Helen now writes about the whole spectrum of raising her teenaged son and daughter, from the emotionally tough, to the frankly ridiculous. Never afraid of taking the less popular view, she is often to be found challenging stereotypes on Instagram, Facebook, and via her podcast Teenage Kicks.   Helen's 3 top tips:  1. Stop fearing the teenage years as a parent 2. Be inspired to grow with your child and embrace the adult they are becoming 3. Take ‘good enough’ over perfect and stop worrying about what other parents think of you   Helen: I’d love people to go over and have a listen to my Teenage Kicks podcast. I’ve interviewed some incredibly special people, all of whom have experienced difficult things as a teenager. All of them have come through their challenges, and consider their lives better because of what they went through. Their insight into what our teens are dealing with is invaluable, and their tips for parents AND teens on how to cope with similar problems are inspiring.   Don't miss another episode. Subscribe to this podcast. If you want learn more about living a fantastic life after alcohol, check out my book! https://www.amazon.com/My-Steps-Sobriety-fantastic-without-ebook/dp/B089ZPD21S/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=stephan+neff&qid=1595922770&s=digital-text&sr=1-1https://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Store/b?ie=UTF8&node=133140011&nocache=1526718783253   And follow me on Instagram, YouTube and Facebook! https://www.instagram.com/mystepstosobriety/https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ5Rgw59jOX4y3iDeMAXpwQhttps://www.facebook.com/mystepstosobriety      See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.