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Quick Tips for bonding with your child and teenager:
- Understand that your child loves you, sometimes he/she just craves more independence.
- Try to keep up with his/her life and interests.
- Encourage your child to participate in wholesome extracurricular activities.
- Dedicate time and space to live experiences together.
- When educating, don’t always be direct. Talk about your own experiences or someone else’s.
- Don’t criticize or judge your child too strongly, he/she is learning to relate with others. Never do it in front of his/her friends or colleagues.
- Help him/her find ways to say “NO” without fear of being excluded. Be creative and proactive. Do it through brainstorming.
- Start with basic sex education and drug use, keep pace with your child’s age and development. Please don’t over explain.
- Don’t forget to cultivate your child’s positive emotions.
How can you help your teen manage social pressure?
- Ask your child if he/she is feeling pressured or negatively influenced.
- Intervene and support him/her in cases of relational aggression or in situations that put his/her emotional and physical integrity at risk.
- Open communication with your child and try to understand the pressure he/she is feeling. Ask how you can help.
- Give him/her ideas on how to respond to this social pressure. Brainstorm together, ask them what they have tried to do to avoid it, and what has worked, or not, to achieve his/her expected results.
- Make sure that his/her self-esteem is not damaged, value his/her social skills and help him/her differentiate between aggressiveness and assertiveness.
- Set clear rules based on your values and principles, make sure you are persistent.
