Welcome to the world of parenting teens. This new era is about enduring intermittent bouts of contempt and not taking it personally. It's about picking the fights that are worth having because through them your kids get to know who you are as a person, what you stand for and what you won't tolerate.
Love in the Time of Contempt is a gritty look at the day-to-day interactions with teenagers in which Joanne Fedler takes us on a journey from frustration, to confusion, to elation and back again. Here she shares her philosophy that we are meant to parent imperfectly. Our mistakes are the start of the important conversations we need to have with our kids. But we are meant to parent mindfully: parenting needs a framework, a vision of life that it is in service to. This is a book about how it feels to be the parent of someone sprouting hair, tits and attitude all over the place. It is a tussled, frazzled and complex business to remain mature while supporting someone to become an adult. At the very least, it raises the question of whether we have, in fact, done enough growing up ourselves.
Love in the Time of Contempt is an honest look at the dramas and delights of parenting people who know it all, don't yet have a full functioning brain and who desperately need us to parent them - just not in the way we're used to.
