As young people navigate this impressionable time, it’s important that parents provide both support and boundaries. This is not to suggest micro-management, rather, it’s an invitation to help your teen understand where their own limits are.
Your intention to love yourself and return to the curiosity of a child informs the openness through which you receive and respond to your loved ones– children, partners, family, and friends.
You provide one model of what self-love can look like, and your teenager is always learning from you.
As a parent, you are constantly modeling self-love to your children and teens. You want them to love themselves, therefore your self-love is the best way to teach. Do not strive for perfection here; seek only to improve and grow each day. Notice the thoughts you are choosing today. Observe with compassion.
When you say "no," and your teen reacts strongly, consider these 5 Ways to Respond to Your Teenager's Meltdown, which will support them in cooling down and realizing that it all really is okay.
Live in the possibilities of your life! This is a step-by-step guide to intention-setting and vision boarding for parents and youth.
You've heard the refusals. Follow this sequence of questions and prompts to solve the problem together
As you engage in tough and important conversations, these 3 tools will help you make a successful connection.
When we take the time to understand why we are feeling the pull to drop it all and start again, we can cultivate more compassion for ourselves. From that starting point, it is easier to understand why it is so important to create a life in which self-care is thoroughly embedded. Honoring our bodies and their natural processes encourages us to create systems of self-care the work to support your real life rather than wanting to escape it.
Have you ever tried a walk and talk with your teen? This could be a walk for exercise, sure, and it can also be entirely leisurely. In either case, walk and talk is communication strategy, a tool to remember when you have a pressing idea to process with your teen or when you can tell they are feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or frustrated. Being next to your teen, or "sideways talking," as opposed to face-to-face, can open the space for conversation-- literally and metaphorically. This orientation often feels less confrontational and more spacious for young people. For some teens, it can be safer to be next to adults when it comes to tough conversations and topics, or even asking for help.