How to Playfully Parent a Teenager

With a teenager at home, you’ll seldom have a dull moment--there’s always something going on and there's always something to worry about. It’s natural for you to stress out about your teen, after all you want to protect them the best you can, but you won’t get so frazzled by the ups and downs of your teenager’s daily life when you take the playful approach.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• A sense of humor
• A supply of appropriate jokes

1. Pay attention to timing. Just as a comedian knows that timing is important for delivering a punch line, the same is true in parenting. A playful word at the right time can turn a potential confrontation into cooperation.
2. Develop a playful style. That way you can make your point while letting your teen save face. Try this line: "Sure you can stay out all night, as long as you take me with you."
3. Lighten up. Life with a teenager is full of surprises and absurdity. If you are serious you will miss it all.
4. Memorize this line: “I know you don’t need me to advise you, but if I don’t act like a parent once in awhile, I think I’m not doing my job, so bear with me while I lecture.”
5. Try to joke with your teen once a day. A little humor at just the right moment lets everyone cool down so that the heat of the moment doesn’t turn into a blowout.
6. Be good natured. Show affection with a smile and a thumbs up. Even if your teenager is being slightly ridiculous, you don’t have to take yourself or your teen so seriously all the time.
7. Remind yourself that the teenage years are only a phase. Once they've moved out of the house things will be so quiet that you might actually miss the loud music and the snippy attitude.

Tips & Warnings

• A playful approach to parenting will energize and excite your family. Hassles resolve more quickly and tensions dissolve with less antagonism.