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The Sometimes Frustrating Game of Raising Teens

What do you do when you have done all you know to do? When you have given your very best in parenting but it seems like everything comes back to slap you? Lately it seems all I am hearing are stories about people either I know of or know personally who are going through very troubling times with their teens. I guess what has made it all the more disheartening is that these are teens that have been raised in the church, so they have been taught a certain standard. I realize church doesn’t save a teen from doing destructive … Continue reading →

Teens Need to Feel Secure

Today begins yet another milestone in my teenager’s life as he begins driver’s education. I have vivid memories of when he was three years old and driving his motorized red jeep. It is so hard to believe he will be getting behind a real wheel. My husband and I were talking last night about our son and how hard it is to believe that he is taking driver’s education. Something suddenly struck me. I asked my husband if he noticed how our son doesn’t seem ready to grow up. What I mean is that although he wants to take driver’s … Continue reading →

Yes, I Teach My Teens Abstinence

Despite all of the sex education being taught in school, the condoms that are being made available on some high school campuses and the trend of “friends with benefits,” I have chosen to, yes, teach my teens abstinence. Abstinence teaching is not given much thought. If it is taught in sex education it is more likely a topic that is quickly glossed over. Not much attention is given to that concept because we seem so sure that every teenager in America is going to have sex whether we like it or not. My personal thought on that is we have … Continue reading →

Teens Are Not Hopeless

One of the pleasures that I get in writing for Families on teen issues is being able to share many of my positive experiences. Too often teens get a bad rap. We hear all of the negative things about teens and so many parents go into those years with a sense of dread. I was forewarned before I became a parent of teenagers. It was made to sound like the worst years of my life were just ahead. It would be nothing but trouble and misery. However I have found raising teenagers to be the very opposite. I think it … Continue reading →

Mistake #1 Parents Make With Teenagers: Expecting the Worst

I am like any other parent…clearly imperfect.  I have made a lot of mistakes and am pretty sure there is more to come.  But I am also a mom who believes in learning from those mistakes, which is what brings me to this five part series on mistakes we parents make with teenagers. The first one we are going to look at is the mistake of expecting the worst out of your teen.  Sometimes this starts long before they’ve even reached this stage, so it might help parents whose children aren’t quite there yet. When my children were in elementary … Continue reading →

Does Soda Cause Teen Violence?

Is your teen a regular soda (or pop, however you wish to refer to it) drinker? Then you should know that your teen is at a higher risk of being violent. That is according to a recent study in Boston and a survey in Minnesota. So if that’s the case, then imagine how a teen that plays violent video games and downs a Pepsi on a regular basis will fare? While it is certainly an interesting study, I’m not entirely sure I see the link between soda and violence. I guess you could say that the caffeine causes an adrenal … Continue reading →

Getting Other Adults to Invest Into Your Teen’s Life

I truly believe that our teens need other adults to invest into their lives. While at one time grandparents were usually the outside parental influence in a teen’s life, today that has changed. Many grandparents are still working, live far away or are otherwise engaged in their own lives. If a teen doesn’t have the advantage of an involved grandparent, then parents may need to look elsewhere. Of course, care and caution must be exercised when deciding on who will invest into your teen’s life. I am so thankful for the wonderful youth program available at my church. It not … Continue reading →

My Best Advice: Choose Your Battles

If I were allowed to give one only bit of advice to parents who have young children or children on the verge of becoming teenagers, I would tell them this…choose your battles. There is honestly no better advice than this. When our children are younger, we tend to have two schools of thought when it comes to how the teen years will play out. Either we dread it and assume it will be nothing but trouble or we believe that we will never have trouble because we are going to be the kind of parents who lay down the law. … Continue reading →

Trying to Understand Teenagers

While the phrase “I will never understand women” is popular, as the parent of a teen I think that is less complicated than trying to understand teenagers. Their emotions can sometimes be all over the place. What was funny to them one day will suddenly cause them to break into tears the next day. One moment they are in this great mood and the next they are suddenly sullen. It can be hard to keep up with the ever-changing emotions at times. I think one of the most clueless people in my home is my husband. I don’t mean to … Continue reading →

Using Encouragement to Motivate Your Teen

When my children were younger one of the parenting concepts I tried to follow was to catch your child doing good and give them recognition for that. This was especially helpful during the years when my children were around 2, 4 and 7 years old. Now that I have a preteen and teenagers, I am finding that parenting concept to be helpful yet again. It probably isn’t really this way but it sometimes feels like there is always something going on. There is always some issue with at least one of my children. Having two children in middle school and … Continue reading →