Let's brag on our teens!

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-14-2000
Let's brag on our teens!
35
Thu, 04-06-2006 - 8:46am

I know raising teens can often be filled with stress and frustrations and there are times when it's almost hard to see the good things about them.

Pam
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-05-1998
Fri, 04-07-2006 - 8:28am

You know, I've been so focused on Matt being my "teen," that I almost forgot that Chris is also a teenager--he turned 13 in December! (He says he doesn't feel like a teenager yet, since he's only in seventh grade, so it's not just me.)

Anyway, I want to brag on Chris, too. He has Asperger's Syndrome, which is a high-functioning autism spectrum disorder characterized by difficulty with social interaction and "reading" social cues, rigid need for routines, intense areas of interest, and often, sensory issues.

Middle school is often a minefield for kids with AS. All the class changes, lockers, more kids and teachers than elementary school, cliques, more social "drama," it can be terrible. I was so nervous when he started school this fall.

Instead, it's been his best year ever. He's getting straight A's in all his classes, his math teacher nominated him for Who's Who in Middle School Students, and the United States Academy of Academics in Mathematics, he joined Art Club (his first extracurricular activity, all of his teachers love him and his contributions to class, and according to his resource teacher, many of his classmates admire and respect him (in elementary school they were either scared of him or teased him). He's also an incredibly talented artist who works in both 2-D and 3-D.

He works really hard to keep his temper under control and has come so far in interacting with peers and his siblings. He's really a great kid and a joy to have around.

Elizabeth

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-09-2006
Sun, 04-09-2006 - 11:09pm

I have two children, Connor who is 17 and Madison who is 15.

Connor has finally decided on what college he wants to go to. He applied to 6 schools and got in to all except 2. He is going to go to UC Santa Barbara and he is very excited. We had gotten into a lot of arguements this year about his motivation, but he is doing extremely well in school and only has one B.

Madison was accepted to a summer session at San Francisco ballet school. She is very excited. She was nervous about the auditon but did very well. I am proud of her. She is also managing 3 AP classes very well this year. I am worried that she is overduing herself, but she tells me that she is okay and has had straight A's since last year.

Adelaide

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 04-09-2006 - 11:37pm

I'm a little late jumping in here. My DD is almost 15, a Freshman, a straight-A GATE student and a wonderful kid. She is a very talented singer and wants to be a Cantor (the Jewish clergy that sings) when she grows up. I'll brag about her and her school's Jazz Choir, which is awesome -- they just

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-27-2003
Sun, 04-09-2006 - 11:47pm

Hey, Adelaide, I live 10 minutes from UCSB, so I'll be sure to keep an eye on your DS! Congrats to him, it's a GREAT school (after all, I went there, too!).


Hugs,


Deborah

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2004
Mon, 04-10-2006 - 2:07am

Congratulations Pam, on Jasons great start in college.
And to all the other posters who have success stories to share.

I've been thinking about what to post here. It's prompted some memories....
In the past, I had always marvelled at those "Christmas Card Newsletters" we would receive each year, spelling out all of Johnnie and Suzies accomplishments over the past twelve months that would seem to make Abraham Lincoln, Mother Therese, and Jesus Christ himself look like pale losers by comparison.
I had often thought of penning one myself. It wouldn't have read quite the same though. "DS1 did not attempt suicide EVEN ONCE this year, and DS2 has recently completed an ENTIRE MONTH of eighth grade without getting stoned before school.....etc...etc.." Wishing you all the best this Christmas Season....etc..etc...
Things have settled down significantly in the last several years. For years it felt like I was robbed of Christmas Card bragging rights, so maybe I can make up for some lost time..
Many of you know oldest DS is in a group home for brain injured young adults. He has frontal lobe damage caused (probably) by meningitis, is deaf and has schizophrenia. This kid seemed to have been whacked with everything, and in turn, whacked us with just about everything during adolescence. Today I spent the afternoon with him and had the most wonderful time. His disabilities are not visible and he speaks quite well. The only down side after finally stablizing on the proper meds, is he has inherited my sense of humor.

DS2 was in the wake of an extremely volatile older brother and found drugs in middle school. I had to pull the rug out from under him and amoung other things, wouldn't allow him to even get a drivers license until he was almost 18. He had no interest in sports and mediocre grades until his junior year of high school.
This kid worked his butt off. Of course, no college would accept his crap GPA and lack of extracurriculars so he had to start at a community college and transfer. Now he will start his senior year of college with a 3.8 and will be a high school english teacher.
He runs two major Minnesota marathons each year usually just under four hours and would like to qualify for the Boston soon. In high school he couldn't run around the block. He is very active in AA mainly for the friendships where alcohol and drugs are not a part of the 22 year old scene. (It's also a good place to find roommates to share apartments!)

Our "late" yet "planned" one, daddio's..(you're telling me...it's a GIRL?) 15 yr old has really only handed me some sporadic major attitude. Probably cutting me some slack after her two older brothers. She's an A/B student and very active in synchro swimming. We've had some really good talks about sex, drugs, etc. where she seems mature for her age. Yet, a little naive in the boyfriend department as described in previous posts. Her best friend is starring in an upcoming movie:
http://www.startribune.com/1553/story/348339.html
http://www.lightsoutthemovie.com

iVillage Member
Registered: 02-15-2006
Mon, 04-10-2006 - 9:49am
Yeah!! My dd got accepted into the Magnet highschool she applied to! She will study Theater Arts and Playwriting. She worked real hard, and I am soooo proud of her.
Avatar for suzyk2118
iVillage Member
Registered: 07-30-1997
Mon, 04-10-2006 - 10:11am

Seeing all the very impressive stuff so many of your teens are doing, I've been having a very hard time coming up with something to brag about for ds13.5. I guess what I can do is talk about how he's a year young for his grade (now in 8th), so although he's not making the straight As he did last year (only has 2 of 7, the rest being B or B+), he's truly working very hard this year (for some reason they've really made 8th much harder than the last 2 at his MS). He's in the advanced algebra class, going into geometry next year, but it's definitely been a hard year for him in math (has been VERY easy in previous years). He's the one with testing issues; knows his stuff going in, then blanks during a test, and knows it immediately following, so it's been a rough year and teachers just feel they know he knows it and really haven't offered any help. Sometimes he's ok with that; other times he feels he's 'stupid' (to himself; he's his worst critic). We've worked HARD on that this year; test grades still bad at times, but attitude a bit better afterwards.

He's g/t, but opted out of the g/t class this year (daily class that was loads of work and research; he's BTDT the last couple of years and wanted to concentrate on other classes to be sure to get into what he wanted in HS next fall - they don't have accelerated classes for g/t at our school; only the math is differentiated and the g/t class is more enrichment). He's in his 2nd full year of German, so he gets a full HS credit going in next year into German 2. He's choosing to take health and PE over the summer.

He's a Life scout; has been one since age 12. Our troop doesn't permit Eagle til about 15; they want the kids to have a lot of leadership activity with the troop (this doesn't count helping out as den chief in cubs at this level; has to be patrol leader, etc.). He was patrol leader in Aug-Feb for the 6 month stint for the largest patrol they've had (17) which took a load of coordinating and calls and emails to complete, but now he's done and is 'assistant troop guide' to half our new scouts (incoming 5th graders; we usually have about 12-14; this year we have 28!). He's on his last merit badge and hopes to finish it this month (also has enough for a palm after Eagle). Our troop is boy-led so he gets no help for badges and such; he's totally on his own. It's definitely been a great growth experience for him, although he's not ready to admit that yet! We'll be going to the Boundary Waters in Canada this summer to fish and relax with some of the troop.

He enjoyed the 'spontaneous challenge' with Jr. Academy of Science this weekend; they were all put into teams and given materials and general guidance and had to devise and run their own experiments based on the materials they all had. His team worked hard; we get results by Friday.

He picked up electric guitar on his own, and isn't too bad...now if he'd only practice violin the next 2 months til school is out...

Other than that, he's a good kid, no temptations for drugs or sex or smoking - not interested yet and likely won't be any time soon. His friends are good solid kids, so no complaints there. All around he's a great kid, so I guess that's something to brag about.

Sue

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-11-2006
Wed, 04-12-2006 - 10:38am

My daughter wrote an essay for a contest in school.
She was very proud of the essay and on the night of the awards ceremony we sat there *dying* for her to win so she wouldn't be crushed.

When her category was ready to be read, she sat there holding the report in clenched hands and then....she lost. Another girl had won. I gently looked over at my daughter ready to console her but she had the report on her lap and she was wildly applauding the winner.
She had a smile on her face as big as the moon and her hands were frantically clapping for the winner.

I've never been more proud.




Edited 4/12/2006 10:40 am ET by misterman2006
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-31-2004
Wed, 04-12-2006 - 12:37pm

I am still relatively new to the site, but I never can pass up a chance to brag about my daughter. For all the trials and tribulations of the teen years, she is a senior and doing amazing.

She has been accepted and will be attending Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, PA in the fall for nursing. She recently found out her grades and SAT scores were high enough, she will not have to take pre-nursing, she will start immediately with her nursing courses and will start clinicals at our local hospital right away. This is so exciting I can hardly fight back tears. She would like to go on and eventually be a neo natal nurse practitioner. She loves children and would like to work with pre mature babies.

She also recently attended her last dance competition with her dance school that she has been dancing with since she was 3 years old, she is now 18. Their jazz dance received a gold medal, best choreography, and 1st place trophy in it's category. She will have several performances in the coming months that will be her last. Can you say "lots of boxes of tissues".

Thank you so much for allowing us to see and talk about the good in our kids. There are a lot of really good kids out there. Good luck to all of them.

Andie

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-05-2004
Mon, 04-17-2006 - 6:41pm
I don't have a teen (obviously), but I'd like to brag about my boyfriend's cousin (17). Not much to say - only that he's an amazing drummer and, after a recent drug overdose (heroin), has re-dedicated himself to his music and is better than ever! I give him props for making through the withdrawels, getting clean and staying clean.

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