The Road to the Empty Nest Is An Emotional Roller Coaster
Life gets more complicated as your teen gets older. Friendships. School. Dating. Alcohol. Drugs. College.
You start to realize no matter how hard you try, you can't guarantee your child's safety. You can't make them happy or strive to succeed. You find yourself constantly trying to find that "right" way to support them. You find yourself on an emotional roller coaster. So happy when they're happy. Anxious and stressed when they're not.
At the same time, as your teen seems to need you less, you can find yourself with more time on your hands to worry. You realize how much of yourself is tied to your child's experience. Who are you separate from your role as a mom? When is the last time you asked yourself this question?
If you are struggling as your teen grows up, you are not alone.
Consider that you don't ever have to let your child go. But you have an opportunity to re-discover yourself.
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My name is Jennifer Collins, and I have absolutely no doubt that you love your teen and are doing your absolute best. But there are a few things standing in your way: Anxiety. Frustration. Guilt. Hurt. Sadness.
I am right there with you, in what I call the "Empty Nest Straddle"...navigating how best to support my teen sons, and also learning how to create more peace and happiness in my own life. In my journey, I have discovered tools that have given me the power to step off the roller coaster of painful emotions and create more peace, confidence, and trust in myself.
You have all of these tools already within you...and I will show you.
To get started, take the Mom Archetype Quiz and start learning about your unique strengths and gifts as a mom. Also, check out the Small Jar Podcast, where I explore life with teens, the transition to the empty nest, and everything in between.
You have more power than you think you do, my friend.
What's a Mom Archetype?
All of us moms bring powerful strengths and skills to the job of raising teens. We are often quick to notice our flaws and shortcomings, so Small Jar created four archetypes to help moms of teens celebrate their many gifts. These four archetypes present a holistic view of who we are as moms, not defined by our challenges, but rather by our strengths.
Every super hero has a vulnerability, and we moms are no different. Each of these Mom Archetypes is vulnerable to particular mindset traps, or subconscious, instinctual ways of thinking designed to keep us safe. This is actually a really good thing, but sometimes, our brain's subconscious motivations can actually work against us.
These archetypes are not only about who we are as moms, but also as women approaching our next chapter.
Take Small Jar's Mom Archetype Quiz and learn how to leverage your strengths to find peace and confidence.
Welcome to the "Empty Nest Straddle"
We think of the empty nest as that time when our kids leave home, but the process of finding the right balance of support and independence as your teen grows up starts much sooner than college (for some of us, it starts as early as Middle School!). As a mom, you begin to feel conflicted. For so long, it's been your job to help support your child. Letting go of this responsibility is hard. Especially when your teen tests boundaries, talks back, or stops listening. Or, they might have trouble with friends or struggle with their mental health, and you start to realize you can't fix the situation for them. Alternatively, they could be ready for independence, and you find you're not quite ready to let go.
The Empty Nest Straddle. Feeling torn between the responsibility of motherhood and the reality that one day soon, your teen will have to stand on their own. Are they ready? Are you?
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