One reason you might be having trouble conversing with your teen is that you haven't made the crucial transition to mentor. If we're parenting our 14-year-old the same way we did when he was eight, we will quickly run into a communication problem. As they enter their teen years, we as a parent should begin to step into the role of mentor. This means we need to transition from telling our kids what to do to mentoring them as they decide what to do. This is crucial to helping them learn how to make sound decisions. We should be more in an advisory capacity than a director capacity, allowing them to take charge of their life while still providing guardrails. The more we stay in our mentor lane, the more our kids will open up to us.
While there are no fool-proof ways to get your teen to talk to you, there are ways to make it easier for communication to happen. Here are a dozen ideas to get your teen to open up with you.
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