As a child, I was blessed to have grown up in a very close knit family. My mom and dad loved my brother and I and they loved each other. Additionally, I grew up with the tremendous blessing of having all four of my grandparents nearby and very involved in my upbringing. Despite some craziness during my teenage years (for which I will now and forever blame *Buddy Kittle–I’m pretty sure he won’t ever read this, so it’s safe to blame him–ha!) I grew up blissfully unaware of the difficult challenges that many families faced. Oh sure, I’m sure that mom and dad had their moments of wanting to strangle each other (as all married couples experience from time to time) and lord knows that they had plenty of moments of wanting to strangle me–but overall, we were a happy and for the most part functional family.

As a child and teenager, I took my nice, stable, loving family life for granted. As an adult however; I now have a much greater appreciation for the sacrifices and efforts that my parents made on a daily basis to ensure that my brother and I grew up in a secure and loving environment. A supportive family unit is so crucial to the emotional well being of every member of the family. If there is strife between members, every individual in that family suffers as a result.

If you are feeling as though your family isn’t as close as you’d like or maybe you’re just a little out of sync these days, keep the following points in mind to help strengthen that all important familial bond…

Okay–I’ll confess…I originally wanted to title this article “I love them, but sometimes I want to kill them” but I was a little concerned that someone would take me too seriously and I’d have Child Protective Services showing up on my doorstep.

Please don’t call the authorities…I really do love my teenagers (with all of my heart!) and would never ever want any harm to come to them.  My boys are the absolute joys of my life and are by far my proudest accomplishment.  They are however, teens and with that comes a whole new set of rules for an entirely different ballgame.

As a mom to two teenage sons, of course there are times when I get nostalgic and miss the days when I could just scoop up my babies and smother them with kisses while they giggled and wriggled in my arms.  I get a lump in my throat every time I browse through their baby pics and see their pudgy little baby bellies and cherubic toddler grins.  I miss the days when I, as their mama, was the center of their universe and they delighted in my love and affection.

There it is. I said it.

I love my kids more than anything in this universe and yet sometimes I feel like they are literally sucking the life right out of me. I mean, it probably isn’t as bad now that they are teenagers as it was when they were toddlers (thankfully they no longer need my help to go potty) but still…I find myself giving so much of my time, energy, emotions and MONEY to my children that I often feel like I have little left over for myself.

The crazy thing is though–I almost feel like this “Martyr Mom” syndrome is something that we moms wear as a badge of honor. I’ve been to playgroups where it felt like there was some kind of twisted competition going on to see which mom was the most exhausted, overextended and frazzled and then for some insane reason, that mom was dubbed the winner because obviously she was the one sacrificing the most for her beloved offspring.

Hello?!? Exhausted, overextended and frazzled ARE NOT FabYOUlous. Exhausted, overextended and frazzled SUCK.