When Teens Talk... if teens talk

Today in church the teens had the opportunity to voice their problems and concerns. The consensus is that they feel that they have no one to talk to about their problems outside of friends who don't have the same values. It was heartbreaking.

On the way home, my husband asked our kids age 11 and 13 questions trying to understand if they felt that way. They insisted they didn't, so we asked and asked in every way possible making sure we weren't missing phrasing that would cause them to open up.

They finally said, "if we have a problem, we tell you." They also said they don't have a lot of the problems in their homeschool Co-op that other kids have in school, because most of the kids have the same values. The ones that don't stand out, but eventually they calm down (and behave accordingly) or leave.

I am not going to get full of myself here, but I do believe that my children are outspoken and forthright because they homeschool. Of course it doesn't hurt that they have outspoken parents, but I am glad to say that so far, at the ages of 13, and 11, they aren't facing things that they can't or won't talk to us about.

I attribute this to homeschooling because when they were in school, they were holding things in and suffering in silence. It took a few years to get them to the point where there are no secrets and to realize that parents aren't the enemy.