Parents, Please Hear These Requests from Teens
I asked my soon-to-be 17yo eldest,
“How do teens in general prefer to be treated by their parents?”
“Hmm … this is for teens in general? Let’s see …”
*pause*
Then she gave me these two points in no order of preference:
1. Don’t scold us in front of our friends
2. Don’t just go and check our phones (please give us some privacy)
…
I asked, “Do you feel that we do those to you?”
“No, but this is for teens in general, right? I have seen my classmate getting badly scolded by his parent during our Zoom class, when his mic was not muted. I feel so sorry for him.”
…
“Any other points that you can think of that you can share with other parents of teens? How about: don’t negatively comment about the teen’s friends?”
“I am fine with that. I guess that’s a problem when teens are closer to their friends and regard them as family, more than their own family?”
…
Our conversation ended soon because she had to get back to doing her school work.
I don’t know about you, but I enjoy chatting with my eldest.
I’m not saying that I have no struggles in raising her, but in general, things are so much better ‘now’ than … say, when she was younger than 10 years old.
…
Have you tried asking your teens about how they would prefer things done towards them?
