This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
The years of middle school and high school are filled with changes for our children. Parenting a teenage son or daughter is as much about listening as it is about giving advice.
The preteen and teen years are the years of transition when our children become teenagers, then young adults. It is a season of becoming independent while navigating through the feelings of insecurity that comes with it.
As parents, these are the years when we need to support them and mentor them. They are the years where our children may begin to act more like young adults, but they are not.
This is the age where we get to really see the kind of person that our child is becoming. It is also an important age, as it is when our children are learning how to be young adults… and we are their teacher.
We need to sit down with our kids and talk to them every day, listen to their stories (even when we are exhausted), and be there to help them navigate the many forks in the road ahead.
Along with our examples, our children can learn a lot from each other. For that reason, I think finding inspirational children’s books and books for young adults is important. That brings us to today’s book & story.
Inspirational Story of Moderation (Excerpt)
Today, I’m sharing the last excerpt from our series on Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul & Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul.
Today’s excerpt comes from Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Preteens. This true story was written & submitted by Zulema Anahy Carlos (a pre-teen girl who has just received her first cell phone). It is about teens and cell phone usage (when it becomes too much).
“Everything in moderation… including moderation”
This quote, by Julia Child is one of my favorite quotes. This book is filled with great quotes at the beginning of every story, along with many preteens’ & teens’ quotes throughout the story.
Cell Phone Madness (excerpt)
Don’t let your phone distance you from the real world.
Zulema Anahy Carlos was thrilled when she got a cell phone for her twelfth birthday. The first day she took it to school she could hardly pay attention in class because she was so busy looking at her phone.
Zulema’s good grades instantly declined, and she was ignoring her family at home as well. Her mom said, “I noticed that you never pay attention to us, your brother or sister. It’s like you have your own little world now and we don’t communicate as much with your phone between us.”
Zulema acted like her family was wrong in their opinion, but she started to wonder if it was true, so a week later, she tried something.
She went an entire day without a cell phone. She had more fun that day & everyone noticed that she was putting her family first again.
She says, “Phones really take you away from the rest of the world. When you use your phone, you move from the real world to a technological world. I’m not saying that phones are bad and not to use them, but you do have to make some time to spend with your family, too, and not get stuck with your phone all day.
My phone took away time from my homework and from my family. It also affected my grades.”
She ends her story by stating, “I will keep using my phone, but I have it under better control now so that it doesn’t interfere with my real life.”
To read more stories and words of encouragement for teens along with inspiring quotes about life check out, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Think Positive for Preteens.
