Parents, are you ready for the Summer Days of Dating when your teenager has soo much free time? Here are 4 quick tips:
1) While you may have a great trusting relationship with your teens, still create safety measures for your house (parental settings on cable boxes; have a lock on liquor cabinets; etc…). While your teen may be responsible, their friends may take some risks in your home.
2) When can friends be over and where in the house are they allowed? Decide and talk openly about these rules. Some parents do not allow sons and daughter’s friends in their kids bedrooms to avoid a “private” setting where kissing, touching, or sexual practices could occur. Other parents say, “Basement door is always left open.” Clarify.
3) With everyone home from school, how much is texting, IMing, and other technology forms of communicating allowed. Some students become addicted to “staying in touch with everyone elses life” – so much that they are not LIVING their own life.
4) TALK. With everyone home more often in the summer and/or spending some vacation time together, TALK unobtrusively about intimacy, equality, and respect. If a news story breaks about dating, hooking-up, teen pregnancy, or sexual assault, ask your teenager their thoughts and do so in a non-judgmental manner.
What tips do you want to add and share with others? Use the “Leave a Reply” section below to do so . . .