I was a Mom at 18 and nothing anyone would have told me would have worked on me. But I can tell you that I wanted nothing more than a strong relationship with my mother, one I didn’t get until I was in my 20′s.

Now I am a mother of three teens (18, 15 and 14). My son and I have a strong relationship, but he’s the only boy of 6 kids. It was inevitable.

My daughter whom is 18 now and I have had a rocky road, but we talk all the time. I drive her to school every morning and we are very similar so we argue a lot.

My 15 year old and I are trying, hard. She’s the artist of the family and I adore that, however, I am pretty sure she’s smarter than me and that makes things difficult, because I don’t always understand how she got so mature.

We all talk, all the time, we cook together, watch TV and stupid videos on the computer. I remember what it was like to be a kid, even when I want to scream, “It’s HIGH SCHOOL. It doesn’t matter in the real world” .. I know, to them… that is the real world. It is the only world they know.

When a boyfriend is not treating one of my daughters right, I voice my concerns just like I would a girlfriend. I let her know that she deserves better and then I bite my tongue and try to give him another chance. I never go beyond two chances though. After that, the olive branch is burned.

I let them see me cry, they know when money is hard and when we are having a bad day in the house. But I also let them see me dance around the house to silly music or go out with my girlfriends. They need to see us as human…

My 18 year old will graduate high school this coming May… I’d like to think I did a pretty good job! Yes… that’s me patting myself on the back.

My kids and I talk about EVERYTHING. Even the things that make me cringe… after gagging a little, they know that we can talk about it all. I know my job as a parent is to raise them as productive members of society, it’s a hard job but I wouldn’t let anyone else do it.