"Get her some ice cream!” If I had a dollar for how many times I heard that advice after my daughter’s devastating breakup, I could buy out the whole grocery store freezer department. Newsflash: Ice cream doesn’t always cut it. In fact, it is possible that ice cream is never the answer to a teen’s broken heart.
From the time they are infants, we take the necessary precautions to protect our kids, but how can we keep them safe once they start driving?
As most parents of a teen can attest, dealing with their teen’s growing independence is often a daunting challenge. But pushing away from parents is a normal part of adolescence and necessary for a teen to develop into a healthy, capable adult. Yet because they are still maturing, they do need guidance and support along the way. So, how do you give your teen the space to grow and avoid overstepping boundaries that tend to push your teen farther away? The first step is understanding the necessary components for your teen to become a capable, healthy adult, and then know how you can guide and support your adolescent during this trying stage while still providing your teen the freedom to grow.
"I got detention for forgetting my book three times in a row,” said the text *Michael sent to his mom. She wasn’t surprised to receive this text from him since she received similar messages previously about how Michael forgot to do his homework or misplaced it. At age eight, Michael was diagnosed with ADHD. Now that he is 13, she hoped that he would be more organized. She wondered if this was normal ‘teen behavior’ or due to his diagnosis of ADHD.
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