Just Dan Grant

The age-old struggle of raising children and teenagers has never been more difficult that right now. Our kids and teens are plagued with temptation and distraction, while we as parents are trying to understand and keep up with their ever changing world. 

Suddenly we look up and the baby we brought home from the hospital is reaching for the car keys and heading to his or her high school graduation, and just like that, our chance to raise them right has passed and we hold our breath in prayer that we did it right. 

We don’t have much time. And what time we do have is contested at every turn. I sat down and worked some numbers in an effort to understand how much time we have with our teenagers. Want to see what I found? 

• Life. When we are talking teen years, let’s talk about from the time they are in sixth grade until they graduate. 7 years. That’s a pretty long time. It’s 2,555 days. 2,555 opportunities to make an impact, train, encourage, and develop a teenager into a responsible adult. But of course, we don’t have them for all that time. They are doing other things. Lets see what those numbers do to our time with them. 

• School. A necessity. If they spend a normal amount of time in school, they are spending 1,764 days in school over the 7 years. That’s a lot, so choose wisely, because their school will set them on a path for success or failure. Participate in their schooling. Watch their grades and their behavior.
  
• Entertainment. Most searches you will do online will come up with the same number. The average teen spends 9 hours a day on entertainment. We call it “screens” in our house. If it has a screen, it is entertainment. Let’s be conservative with this number and say they are only on screens for 5 days a week. That’s still 45 hours a week, 2,340 hours a year. Over their teenage life, they will spend a staggering 682 days being entertained. Wow. 

• Food. Teens eat. They eat often and they eat a lot. You can’t talk about teenagers without factoring food into it somewhere. Just eating 3 meals a day, most eat 4, and we can’t even calculate the snacks, they eat almost 320 days of their teenage life. And they don’t gain a stinking pound.

• Sports. Lots of teens play sports. It’s good for them – gets them off the screens and they can’t eat at the same time. Lets just consider school sports for now, to work with a manageable number. School sports start when school does and runs to the end of the year. Practices, tryouts and games non-stop. If they play all school year, in multiple sports, 4 practices a week, 2 hours a practice, they could be practicing and participating for 84 days in their teen sports career. Even if they play just one sport a year, they could see 28 days of practice. 

• God. As a Youth Pastor, I have heard that in many churches, the burden of making a spiritual impact in the lives of our teenagers is my responsibility. I wouldn’t argue with that. What troubles me is how much time I have to work with. If they are at church every Sunday for sunday school and morning service, and they are back for youth group on Wednesday, I have them for 3 hours each week. Over their teen life, I have less than 44 days to make an impact on them. Over half of our teen ministry only attends on Wednesday. So if they are with me for an hour each week, I have 14 days to impact them. 

These numbers are estimates. Some things take less time – but many take more. And we didn’t account for any other activities or time with friends. If you start subtracting the 2,555 days – School (1,764) – and Entertainment (682) – and Sports (84), you are left with little time to impact your teenager. Choose their environment and their schedule wisely. 

It’s About Time.