How to Stay Involved in a Teen' s Life

In today's world of online chats, texting, and IM'ing, it's harder than ever to get the attention of your teen, although we know, as parents, the above reasons are some of the very reasons why it's so important to stay highly involved in your teenager's life.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

1. Take any opportunity you can to start a conversation with your teen. Driving in the car when it's just the two of you is a very good time to talk. You've got a captive audience, after all. If you're at a loss for what to talk about, sometimes you can break the ice about something that happened in your day.
2. If you can tell they're in a mood to talk to you (which is rare), no matter what you're doing or where you may need to be at a certain time, let it go. Take the time to hear what's on your teen's mind. Listen carefully because they may not know how exactly to tell you what they want to.
3. This is a HARD one. Try, try, try not to jump to conclusions or pass judgement if your teen is telling you something that happened (whether or not he/she was involved) that resulted in one of their friends (or them) getting in trouble. Let him/her explain everything that happened. Ask questions like, "Why did you do that?" or "What made you think that would be a good idea?" It's good to try and understand how the teenage mind works, because quite honestly it doesn't function yet like the adult mind.
4. Most important is to make sure your teen knows that no matter what, you will always love him and no matter what the consequences he should always feel like he can come and talk to you about anything.

Tips & Warnings

• It's always a good idea to get to know your teenager's friends. Besides, then you've got something else to talk to your teenager about.
• Try and remember what it was like when you were a teenager. Share with your teen some of the things you did and/or wish you hadn't done.
• Don't be too quick to pass judgement. Remember, you can't always judge a book by its cover.