510: Am I Ruining My Teenager’s Life?
Wire Talk with Karen Stubbs
Karen Stubbs
4.9 • 936 Ratings
🗓️ 24 March 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If you’ve ever wondered, “Am I ruining my teenager’s life?” - you’re not alone. Today, Karen answers questions from moms navigating strong personalities, emotional pushback, and the tension between protecting and preparing their teens. With her trademark practical wisdom, she reminds us that what feels like conflict is often part of God’s process for refining our kids.
Episode Recap:
- As moms, we can see the writing on the wall but our teens literally can’t (1:45)
- My daughter and I fight all the time, I just do not like her right now (4:02)
- You cannot take their attitude and/or push back personally (7:43)
- How do I motivate my lazy teenage son? (9:01)
- We don’t need to coddle our sons (11:09)
- Look into our new study: How to Teach Your Kids the Bible (13:30)
- My daughter’s career dreams are unrealistic, how do we talk to her about it? (13:45)
- Any tips for a blue mom raising a melancholy 15 year old teen? (17:36)
- Our job is not to solve all our kids’ problems, it’s to point them to the Lord (19:41)
Scripture: Galatians 6:9 (NLT)
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”
Discussion Questions:
- When have you felt like your teen misunderstood your intentions? How did you respond?
- Where are you tempted to take your teen’s behavior personally?
- What would it look like to “get out of God’s way” in your parenting right now?
- How can you stay emotionally steady when your teen is not?
- What is one boundary you need to hold with confidence this week?
Resources:
- Listen to the rest of our conversation on WT+: boaw.mom/insider
- Check out Karen’s Peace for the Anxious Mom study today
- Check out our BRAND NEW Bible study: How To Teach Your Kids the Bible
- Download our FREE temperaments packet
- Pick up Karen’s devotional for Teenage Girls on Amazon
Want More of This Conversation?
WT+ listeners will hear Karen encourage you to stand firm in your parental convictions without damaging the relationship. Karen shares personal stories of the fruit that both she and her children have reaped from maintaining stricter boundaries in the teenage years.
Head HERE and join us for the full conversation.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey everybody, welcome to Wire Talk. Are you a mom of a teenager? Well, if you are, today's |
| 0:05.4 | episode is for you. Do you ever ask yourself, am I ruining my teenager's life? Listen, |
| 0:11.3 | the struggle is real. We want to protect them, but we're also trying to let them go. They have |
| 0:16.3 | strong personalities and they have a fierce sense of independence. So these are great questions from |
| 0:22.5 | moms and we are going to get to them and give you some practical advice on how to navigate |
| 0:27.5 | life with your teenagers. Hey moms, welcome to Wire Talk. We are so glad you're here. Mom, |
| 0:36.9 | we've got some really good listener |
| 0:38.5 | questions for you today and i'm not in this stage of motherhood but i know you're going to hear |
| 0:43.0 | these and be like i've been there you're doing a great job yeah because the topic is am i ruining |
| 0:47.8 | my teen's life and mom said when she was reading the topic she goes you probably are yeah um |
| 0:53.0 | well because you know what, I've been these |
| 0:54.7 | moms. I mean, almost all the questions, I could really relate to them. Yeah. I mean, in a big way. I think if you're doing it the right ways, at some point you are ruining your kid's life. Well, I don't think you're ruining their life. You're trying to help them. They just don't see it. They will accuse you of ruining their life. |
| 1:10.4 | In the teenagers world, in my teenage brain, when you told me I could not do something or had to do |
| 1:16.0 | something that none of my friends were, you were ruining my life. I know, I know. And I somehow got to |
| 1:21.8 | the other side as a world. You somehow are now married and you have a family and you're happy. |
| 1:29.4 | I mean, oh my goodness. |
| 1:30.5 | It's like you knew what you were talking about. |
| 1:32.8 | It is a miracle. |
| 1:34.5 | It's a miracle. |
| 1:35.4 | You're telling me it, my 13-year-old brain didn't know have all the answers. |
| 1:39.4 | Definitely not your 16-year-old brain. |
| 1:41.6 | It's shocking to all. |
... |
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