Giving Teens A Choice
Ivy Griffin
As our children shift into preteen and teen years, simple things like completing chores, doing tasks that they always did before sometimes become more difficult. You ask them to do something and you get a big fat NO. Oh god, and it’s so frustrating. Any parent can agree I think.
Because it’s not a new thing. It’s simple, it’s easy, it’s something that’s always been expected. And sometimes we’re at a little bit of a loss. Sometimes we get mad, and might yell. But none of that works, right?
And so, I would encourage you if your teen or your preteen is starting to push back a little bit, try a slightly different approach – options. Right. We are raising our children to become adults. We want them to become productive and positive members of society. And part of that is helping them learn how to make decisions, how to follow through and how to take responsibility and act independently in their lives.
By presenting them with a choice between one task and another, we give them a little bit of freedom, right? We give them a little bit of control. We give them the power to choose. And sometimes this makes all the difference in the world.
Written & recorded by Megan Bell, LMFT