teenager kids

Once our little ones are all grown up and on their own it's a tough job getting them to come to family affairs. They always have work or other obligations they have to tend to. We just have to keep letting them know that we appreciate the time we get to spend with them and hope that it will be more.

My child was great with us until she was 16. Then as you said they seem to value their friends times more than with family. It is hard to imagine why they want to turn their back on grandparents, aunts, cousins, etc for people they have only just met. But it seems to be this way. We are still learning ourself, but one thing is make sure that if you do a family function, try hide the cell phone and make the event away from town a bit, so they are forced to have to ride with you. We made the mistake of having her go with us to a musical concert and expecting to go to dinner with her and her boyfriend afterwards. My parents were coming to dinner and were excited to see her. But it never happened because we picked a resturaunt back in town close to home. During the entire concert, her friends kept text messaging her to hurry up. Once we got to the resturaunt, she and her boyfriend claimed they were not hungry had arranged via text messaging to be picked up by their friends at the resturaunt while en route there. My parents were so upset. I think my mistake is we should have picked someplace to eat further from home, where the friends would not venture to if it were out of their comfort zone.