Parenting teens isn’t easy and many moms and dads long for the days when their kids were little and adored them. While parents understand that they are no longer the center of their teen’s world, they want to recapture that sense of connection and are looking for ways to do that. Instead of talking about what to do, it’s easier, however, to review what parents should avoid at all costs. Here’s how to not<\/em> connect with your teen, in 13 easy steps.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

– Launch question after question after question at them about their day as soon as they put one foot across the front door threshold.<\/p>\n

– Speaking of questions, stick with those that can easily be answered “yes” or “no,” or better yet, with merely guttural responses instead of actual words.<\/p>\n

– Refrain from laughing with them or appearing to be anything close to “fun” or “funny”.<\/p>\n

– Forget all about the concept of personal space and get all up in their business until you have their full undivided attention.<\/p>\n

– Share all the stories you have about what it was like when you were growing up. Be sure to do so when they have not asked.<\/p>\n

– Rail against how awful social media is and how you don’t see any redeeming value whatsoever about Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, whatever your teen’s favorite happens to be. (Or regularly go off about all of them just to make sure you’ve covered your bases. Teens are fickle, after all, and you never know when their allegiances will switch.)<\/p>\n

– Offer detailed critiques of their performances (sports, theater, debate, anything) immediately after they are finished, before they have a chance to ask you. Bonus points if there are others around to hear you doing so.<\/p>\n

– When they are overwhelmed and stressed, don’t do anything nice for them or help in any way, at all. Sure, they might appreciate a signal that you’re on their side and have their back, but they won’t have that when they’re adults in the real world, so best to get used to flying without a net now.<\/p>\n

– Conversely, do absolutely everything for them so that they a) see you as the hired help, and b) don’t develop any skill, competence or confidence in themselves to handle basic tasks, let alone new challenges.<\/p>\n

– Talk about their grades. Do so often. And let them know that you check their grades on the parent portal more frequently than they do.<\/p>\n

– Criticize their friends.<\/p>\n

– Take everything they do that is not 100% kind, attentive, and polite as a personal affront to you.<\/p>\n

– Expect them to be perfect – all the time.<\/p>\n

There you have it – simple instructions for how to not connect with your teen! And, if you happen to be one of those parents who wants to enjoy a close relationship with your adolescent, then just do the exact opposite.<\/p>\n

You May Also Like: <\/strong>Why it\u2019s so important to know your mandate when parenting a teen<\/a><\/p>\n

Prior Post:\u00a0<\/strong>Why teens should watch Malala on \u201cMy Next Guest Needs No Introduction\u201d with David Letterman<\/a><\/p>\n

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Parenting teens isn’t easy and many moms and dads long for the days when their kids were little and adored them. While parents understand that they are no longer the center of their teen’s world, they want to recapture that sense of connection and are looking for ways to do that. Instead of talking about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8795,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8791"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8791"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8806,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8791\/revisions\/8806"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/betweenusparents.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}