We have 3 teenagers now, 16/15/13.
I cannot understand the idea that teenagers are any kind of problem.
I love hanging out with them, and, surprisingly, the feeling is mutual.
Every stage of parenthood has been delightful.
When children say things like that, they're typically expressing their worst fears.
"Go away!"
"I don't love you!"
"I'm leaving this family!"
My son (5yo) wrote me a letter while he was at his grandparents house a couple months ago. My FIL showed it to me and warned me it might be upsetting.
I don't remember exact but it said, "Dad I never see you I wish you wouldn't work so much all the time and I wish you would play with me more."
If your son wasn't saying this it would say more. He loves you, wants more of your time and misses you. It means you're doing something right.
Ask your son when he feels the most love from you. When I asked my 5yo that he said, "When you do battles with me.) (Battles are like rough housing, throwing them around the living room and wrestling.) After that I committed to do that more often with them and I do.
You're a great dad. Stay intentional!
My son told my wife today that he doesn’t love me because I don’t spend as much time with him as she does. I’m the sole income earner in our family of four and try to never work between 5pm and his bed time, and walk him to school every morning. What’s even the point of working this hard if your kids don’t even like you.
Biggest lesson for me: My mental health and self care are my responsibility alone. My wife isn’t going to check and make sure if I’m taking care of myself and my kids aren’t even capable of that. I can’t run myself ragged and then resent my home. Especially if I haven’t directly communicated my needs and set boundaries around my time. And boundaries are mine to hold, not theirs. If I give up my time…it’s on me.
This may sound self centered, but I’m telling you, after I figure this out I was able to pour WAY more into my wife and kids. WILLINGLY and with more energy.
this OpenClaw bot finds $500k–$1.2M homes without pools, renders a pool into their backyard, and mails the owner a postcard showing the before/after, on autopilot...
here's how pool builders can close $50k+ deals with this system:
- scans satellite imagery for mid-market homes with empty backyards
- filters by lot size, sun exposure & recent ownership change
- pulls the homeowner direct from public records (not shared leads)
- renders a luxury pool dropped into their actual yard
- calculates build cost + home value lift for their specific zip
- generates a cinematic video of their backyard with the new pool
- prints a personalised postcard with the before/after + QR code
- drops it in the mail + hits them with retargeting
every step from sourcing to outreach is automated.
reply "POOL" + RT and i'll send you the full breakdown so you can build this too (must be following so i can DM)