La La Land Mommy: 3 Tips For Teens To End Uncomfortable Conversations With Their Peers
Communication for teens has drastically changed over the years. Now they have more ways of communicating than I could even dream of as a teenager. They have cellphones to text and talk on, social media, and emails. With all these forms of communications my husband and I try to limit what our kids can do and we monitor them as much as we can. They know that at any random moment we can check their phone and see what type of conversations they are having and they can only have apps that we approve of. They also aren’t allowed to delete any messages.
My oldest Nishe’ has just now started to interact with friends more outside of school. With that comes interests in the opposite sex. Well right now it is more so that boys are interested in her than she is in them. I have noticed that sometimes these young boys will make advances towards her and she for the most part doesn’t know how to respond to them. She is like me she doesn’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings and she doesn’t like confrontation. So when they make their advances she doesn’t really know what to say. Especially one boy in particular. So my husband and I recently sat down with her and gave her some tips to what she can do if this happens over the phone or in person.
- Change the subject. We told her she can try to steer the conversation in a different direction other than the one they are currently having.
- Let the person know that she is uncomfortable with the conversation and will end the conversation if they want to speak about the subject.
- Simply end the conversation. Tell them she has to go or if in person just simply walk away.
After we talked to her we did some random practice. We told her that just because someone is her friend or likes her doesn’t mean she has to put up with their disrespect. That if the person really respected her that they would stop when she asked them to. I told her that sometimes in order to be respected sometimes you have to stand up for yourself and that by standing up for yourself it may cause you a friendship. We told her that anyone who is interested in her will approach her like the smart and talented young lady that she is and that they wouldn’t say nasty things to her because they think it will get her into bed or do something that they want. One thing that never changes about being a teen is the difficulty of creating boundaries.
What tips do you give your teens about handling situations such as this?
La La Land Mommy: 3 Tips For Teens To End Uncomfortable Conversations With Their Peers
