growth and development |
What Can You Do?
- Don't take it personally when teens discount your experience. Try to empathize with and listen to their concerns. Enlist the help of a slightly older sibling or friend to give good advice to the teen if needed.
- Get teens involved in discussing their behavioral rules and consequences. Teens should take a more active role in determining how they should behave. Their advanced reasoning skills make it easier for them to generate realistic consequences for their actions. Listen to their ideas!
- Provide opportunities for teens to participate in controlled risky behavior. Get teens involved in properly supervised extreme sports, such as parachuting, or rock climbing. Such activities will allow teens opportunities to play out their "it can't happen to me" mentality in an environment that won't be deadly if they fail.
- Provide opportunities for teens to get involved in community service. Teens want to become active in things that have deeper meaning. Suggest they volunteer at a homeless shelter, walk dogs for the animal shelter, or take meals to the elderly. Talk with them about their experiences.
- Talk to teens about their views and be open to discussing your own. Find out what they think about news stories on television or in the paper; ask them about their political and spiritual beliefs. Teens are already thinking about these things so give them a non-threatening forum for discussing them.
- Try to build a genuine relationship with your teen. Let them know what you were like as a teen. Talk to them about your mistakes and vulnerabilities. Try to understand their feelings and express yours so you can be understood. (next)
