Pancakes and Teenagers

I came home cold and tired from a long winter run last Saturday morning and there were five teens in my kitchen, four boys and a girl making pancakes. (“Norwedish” pancakes, because in my childhood they were Swedish pancakes, and in my husband’s they were called Norwegians.) I had to navigate through the pitchers of batter, syrup, powdered sugar, and strawberries to make my recovery shake.

I was thankful.

Teenagers need a place to belong, and we want to be one of those places.

It starts with a great relationship with our own teens. And it grows out from there to good friend choices. These two foundations are topics for another post but important to mention first.

Beyond that—How do we help teens belong in our home? This post will name five simple ways to open your home, and the next post will name five simple ways to open your heart.

To open your home to teenagers:

1. Food and drinks. Have extra and invite their consumption. It’s worth the trips to Costco.
2. Games. We’d often rather buy a game than spend entertainment money on something temporary. I’m looking at our newest—Power Grid.  We spent a worthwhile two+ hours playing it over the weekend with our nineteen-year-old son (who of course beat us) at the end of his college spring break.
3. TV. This is a longer story, but we chose to raise our kids without a TV until their teenage years. We wanted to build a strong connection as a young family apart from having the TV on. But as they grew older, we saw them going elsewhere to watch the big games or sitting on the couch in the same room as us but with everyone watching their own thing on a tiny screen. So we finally invested in a TV, and we are thankful for the evenings the boys have friends over to watch a show. Planet Earth 2 is the current favorite (and of course March Madness).
4. Lights on. It sounds silly, but leaving the porch lights on all night and the inside lights on until the last person is in bed makes for a welcoming home.
5. Dinner guests. I am (almost) always willing to add a plate to the table for a dinner guest. We love including our boys’ friends in our mealtimes, and Mark is so bold as to usually ask them to pray for our meal! It’s a great way to get to know them better.

We want teenagers to know they belong here. They matter to us.

Hope and Be.Longing

How is your home welcoming to others?

Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. (1 Peter 4:9)

 And if you want to add “Norwedish” pancakes to your hospitality…