So much acting out behavior that parents see comes from being hurt by someone your teen loves. Although your teen may seem to love being with their friends more, the hurt that hurts the most comes from you. If you know this hurts, why would you… …Yell when you can speak calmly …Shove when [...]
I know it didn’t go well when you tried to tell your Mom you were pregnant. What did you want your Mom to say? Your teen badly wants your support. Yes, they want their privacy, but that’s appropriate to helping them start to problem solve situations. In the end, when they look around the room [...]
Your teen calls and they are so excited about a trip or business venture or intimate partner. Meanwhile you’re listening and as you listen you start thinking, “this is not going to work.” You may get to the point when you actually say out loud, “You’re joking right? You know that’s not going to [...]
“I tried to tell my Mom several times that I was molested by my uncle. It was clear that she didn’t want to believe or hear me. I finally realized that and stopped tryin’ to tell her.” As a parent you do the best you can with what you’ve got. This is fair. No [...]
“Bad things are gonna happen in life, if you can’t handle this, what are you gonna do when something worse happens? Get over it! What do ya want a hug? That’s not gonna solve anything.” This Dad is right. Bad things do happen. And yes, sometimes the world seems really hard, but the way [...]
Here is a simple exercise, without telling your teen what you are going to do, for one week give your teen compliments, cheers or kudos on legitimate actions and behavior. This is without any negative comments. Hmmm…seems hard, huh? You can forget the things your teen is doing well because they also do things [...]
It is important that we are aware of how important our words are to our teens and not take their “whatever” attitude towards us as a sign that we can say whatever we want to them without it hurting who they become as adults.
