Parenting Teenagers is a trial of mythic proportions, true?
Really, isn’t parenting teenagers just a matter of building on the parenting you’ve already done while you thought of your children as “children?” Sometimes it really is hard to see, but when you parent day-in and day-out, you don’t notice how all the parenting opportunities come together for a total effect.
One of my mentors was a dear fellow named Marlin Howe (he wrote the forward for The Absolute Quickest Way to Help Your Child Change) who has passed on to the next life. Marlin was fond of saying that the teen years were a second chance for anyone trying to parent teenagers well.
Here’s the basic thought:
httpv://youtu.be/bA8vi5OOhyA
Parenting Teenagers: Teen Years are a Parent’s Second Chance
So, there you go. Try to re-frame how you are thinking about the challenges of parenting your teenager. You have another chance as that teen is still in the process of maturing. More than anything I’d stress a couple of points to remember as the parent of a teenager:
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- Your marriage relationship is the greatest influence you have on your teen
- Telling your teen what EXACTLY you expect will solve 75% of your struggles
Of course, honesty and telling the truth between parents and teenagers is crucial, but that will need to be another article 🙂
Blessings,
Fred Lybrand
P.S. If you found this helpful, you might also like this article on Children Becoming ‘Addicted’ to Computers
