Letters to My Son: A Mother’s Journey Through the Tween Years (A – Z Challenge 2025)

Raising a tween is akin to having a ticking time bomb in your arms—you never really know when it will go off, but you prepare yourself in any case. One day, they’re your little kid, carefree and full of curiosity, and the next, they’re questioning everything, distancing themselves, and making their way in a world that now seems a lot larger than it used to.

I struggle to pin this collection of letters between things. The silent turning, the minute breakings, the surprises and joys, and the incessant push and pull of letting go and holding on. It’s a naked and honest examination of the hard moments I struggled as a mother, the blunders I made (still making), and the truths I am continuing to learn.

I write these letters to my son, Penguin, so that someday, when he reflects, he may see me better, not only as his mother, but as someone who was learning alongside him. 

I also write for other parents who might find themselves in the same position, experiencing the emotional ups and downs of parenting a tween, both strongly connected and inexplicably removed from the child they once knew.

This isn’t a handbook, and I don’t have it all together.

It’s merely a series of moments, musings, and observations. A reflective path through one of the most complicated and lovely stages of parenthood. 

Perhaps you’ll recognize yourself in these pages. 

Perhaps you’ll be reassured to know that you’re not the only one.

Or perhaps, as with me, you’ll come to see that parenthood is less about it all making sense, and more about being present, learning, and loving with abandon at each step.