My Teens Don’t Rebel. Here’s What We Do Differently

We’ve been lied to about teens. I grew up assuming the teenage years had to be rebellious and dreaded walking through that with my own kids…but I’m learning it doesn’t have to be that way. In today’s vlog we keep training Minty the new milk cow, get the farm’s gravity‑fed water lines ready before the boys and I leave for Africa, and I share eight big things we’ve done differently that seem to be changing the story with our teenagers.

You’ll see the very real side of first‑time milking (including Minty rearing back and nailing me with her head), pigs rebuilding hurricane‑damaged pasture one paddock at a time, and the boys tackling water‑line repairs, grading, and projects I used to do alone. While we work, I talk through how opting out of “normal” youth culture eating together, working together, playing and worshiping together, making decisions as a family, and navigating the wider world side‑by‑side has helped us build a culture where teens want to stay connected, even while they push back and dream their own dreams.

We also check the mountain spring, clean out the weir, improvise fittings to get tanks filling again, and end the day by picking up Lily from her first solo trip and flight, continuing this theme of helping our kids stretch with us instead of away from us. I’m not sharing a formula or pretending we’re perfect just inviting you into what’s working (and what’s still messy) as we raise teenagers on the homestead and prep for Africa together.

If you care about both family culture and practical homesteading, tap like, subscribe, and share this with a friend who’s nervous about the teen years. Comment below: What’s one thing you do (or want to do) to stay genuinely close with your teens?