Listen to Everything

The key to raising teenagers is to start when they’re small children. If parents develop and maintain a caring, trusting, relationship when they’re small, it’s far easier for them to provide the discipline required when they become teenagers. Open communication is essential in the adolescent years when their peers become more influential than family. It’s not something you can just start when they reach that stage and expect everything to be fine. So, talk to your kids at every age. More importantly, let them talk to you. Listen…to everything. Children test our reactions – and how we might respond to certain things by talking about other unrelated issues – so be sure you hear them out. If you do this when they’re young, it won’t seem so foreign to them when they are older, and it won’t be so unnatural for you.