Search Results for: blog treating teenagers like adults

Do You Know Where Your Teenagers Want to Go in Life?

As parents, we spend a great deal of our time and energy trying to make sure we raise our kids to be loving, caring, and contributing citizens. We struggle to impart some of our wisdom, experience, and values on our children and hope that we are doing a decent job with all of our parenting efforts. By the time they get to be teenagers, we may really feel a sense of panic about all the things we still need to teach and share with them before they fly the nest. With all this to think about and work on, we … Continue reading →

Where did all the teenagers go?

I’ve noticed a difference between life in the military as a child and as an adult. The biggest one has been the appearance of children. I’m not meaning the way they are dressed or how their hair is cut, but I’m talking about how many are around and just where did all the teenagers go? As a child growing up on a military base we had quite a few hang-outs, one was a hill on the base, another the parks and of course the Shoppette. Why is it that when I drive through housing I never can see a single … Continue reading →

Teacher and Student Relationships: A Growing Problem?

I really feel a need to rant. I don’t know what others think but it seems to me that there has been a tremendous increase in the number of inappropriate incidences between teachers and students. In the past week I have heard of three separate cases where local teachers are being charged for having sexual relations with middle school or high school students. I can hardly believe that in just one week’s time there are three separate incidences in three separate school districts. What in the world is going on here? Last night I was watching my local news which … Continue reading →

Teens: How Old Are They Anyway?

A recent Washington Post article addresses the conflict of treating teenagers like kids, or considering them to be young adults. Just who is a “young adult”? Common sense says legal adulthood starts at age 18. But elements of our society have unofficially declared that the onset of adulthood matches the onset of puberty at the very grown-up age of 12 – which is one of the reasons why parents often seem uncertain about how to parent during the critical teen years. The point of the article appears to be that parents should not forgo parenting and being hand on with … Continue reading →

Health: Chlamydia

In the United States, chlamydia is the most common of the sexually transmitted diseases. A bacterial infection, chlamydia infects approximately 5% of people. The most likely who will contract chlamydia are African-Americans, people who live in urban areas, teenagers and young adults, and ones who fall into the low end of the socioeconomic category. The bacterial cause of this, Chlamydia trachomatis. Chlamydia can be transferred from one person to another by sexual means and from a mother to her unborn child during delivery. This bacteria can cause eye infections in an infant and/or pneumonia. Women with chlamydia generally exhibit no … Continue reading →

Old Enough to Vote!

My eldest daughter and I were chatting the other night about the current political climate and she casually reminded me that she will be old enough to vote in the next, upcoming presidential election. How on earth did THAT happen?! How odd to think of my baby sitting down to read the voter’s pamphlet and being able to cast her own votes based on her own choices, information, and misinformation… I take voting pretty seriously and I don’t think I’ve missed an election–local or otherwise–since I first started my own voting career at the age of 18. I still remember … Continue reading →

Letting Go of the Past–Refraining From Bringing up Ancient History

Anger, rage, and frustration can all be hard emotions to wrangle. Often, because our attachment to our children is so strong, they have the ability to bring out some of the strongest and most intense emotions possible in us–and this can be a real impediment to parenting and solid, productive communication. One challenging communication blocker is when we bring up long past behaviors or actions when we’re trying to make a point or communicate with our child. It can be really tough (and SO important) to leave ancient history in the past where it belongs. Even rather young children resent … Continue reading →

Should You Let Your Teenager Attend High School Dances?

Posted on by

What is a high school dance? To a teenager, a high school dance is an opportunity for he or she to get together with their friends, listen to music, dance and have a good time. Dances are a time when relationships are formed between guys and girls. I still remember the high school dances I went to. I remember dancing with that certain guy who made my stomach jittery and my palms sweat. Conversely, I remember the pain of rejection when a guy I really liked never asked me to dance. In a way, high school dances are a way … Continue reading →

Teaching Our Children the Difference Between Having an Opinion and Being Opinionated

As many of you know, I am living in a house full of teenagers. This can mean a great deal of black and white thinking as they all work to form opinions, create their individuals identities and figure out how they can be separate, different people and break away from the authority of adults and parents. This means that I am constantly bombarded with opinions and theories and some downright opinionated declarations. I am working on helping my kids understand the difference between having an opinion and being opinionated. Opinionated, of course, means that a person has an opinion but … Continue reading →

“I’m Not Stupid, Mom!”

Just so you know, I want to go on record as reporting that I have not ever called any of my kids stupid. I might have gently implied that one of their choices or decisions was not influenced by the wisest of decision-making skills, but no one has ever been called stupid or dumb by me. However, when adolescence set in with all its joyous and surprising wonders—it seemed that suddenly, just about anything that came out of my mouth was filtered through some strange invisible translator and what my kids hear my say included my telling them they were … Continue reading →