“Put your coat on, it’s cold outside,” I told my 19 year old daughter who was home from college for the weekend. “Mom,” she says, “I’ve been successfully dressing myself for a while now.” She stopped me dead in my tracks. You know, she’s absolutely right. I need to change my script.

How many times do our kids give us the message that it’s time to change our approach? They give us this feedback all the time…but are we listening? Can we hear it? Often not, but that doesn’t change the value of their message.

Parents must remember that our teenagers are gaining experience, judgment and independence continually. We must change our approach and our script to properly reflect their growth. If we fail to do so they will tune us out and we’ll be left wondering why.

Parenting teens isn’t always about them changing and growing; we must change and grow too.

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