When A Teenager Calls, You Show Up

 

I was poised and ready to take a nap when she wrote. 

“Do you want to get coffee,” she asked? 

“Of course,” I said. 

Because when a teenager asks to spend time with you, 

That’s what you do. 

 

I recently read an article about the uptick of talking in schools. 

The article posited that more kids than not do not have meaningful conversations, or conversations at all, with anyone, especially adults, after they leave school. 

Instead, most kids spend time online playing games,

Being ignored by those in their homes, 

If older siblings or parents are even home due to work, 

Living in virtual worlds. 

 

Kids need to talk.

Kids need to be heard. 

Kids need adults to sit with them and listen,

Even if it’s listening to stories of video games that make no sense.

If no one is doing this,

Then it’s no wonder kids talk all the time at school.

Does understanding this make my job as a teacher any easier?

No. Kids still have things to learn and they still need to listen.

But it surely does make me have a lot more grace.

 

So yes, when a teenager beckons, I go. 

Research shows that teenagers need at least five adults beyond their parents whom they can trust.

And given what I now know about many parents being absent from their kids’ lives due to work or busyness or phones or any number of reasons, 

I would argue that these extra adults are  even more important now than ever before. 

 

May we be the adults who show up today, 

For some things are even more important than a nap, 

And this is coming from one who loves a good nap. 

 

Amen.