Teenagers and Privacy – Where Should Parents Draw the Line?

March 24th, 2010 by Sue Blaney

Are you watching NBC’s PARENTHOOD on Tuesday nights? You should. They are doing a really good job of bringing up important issues and sharing the points of view of both parents and teenagers. I consider it my duty to watch this show (not tough duty at all! :>) and I invite you to watch it and join the discussion about it afterwards here and on my Facebook page “Parenting Teenagers” (where I post discussion questions.) One thing I want to point out to you: This show presents a great opportunity to open up dialogue with your teenagers that can be really productive for you both.

Here are some parent-teen discussion ideas from last night’s show:

Is there ever a time parents have a right to look around in their teenager’s room? How about hack into their teen’s computer? Under what conditions might this be appropriate? How do your teenagers feel about that? Ask them. Try and find a meeting of the minds.

The teenagers in the episode made it quite clear that they consider it parents’ own fault if bad feelings are created between them when parents are too restrictive. How might parents and teens maneuver their way through this period in their relationship when teens demand more freedom than parents feel is appropriate? Is there a way for teens to push for more freedom without sneaking or lying?

Here is an NBC video with parents discussing the privacy issue: good food for thought…

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