Parent-to-Parent

Communication Ideas

 Bleacher Talk

  

Communication is a key protective factor in keeping your teen safe.  At the next football game, during intermission at the school play, or at other shared events, strike up a conversation with another parent about a teen issue.  Be prepared to call the parents in your teen's prom group or homecoming group to set guidelines.

The following real-life situations can trigger parent-to-parent conversations about typical teen issues that are not always easy to work out. 

  • Your teen's friendship group is going to Cozumel for pring break and your teen insists it is okay because several parents are chaperoning .... from a different hotel across the road.
  • You hear about a drinking party your child attended.  You call the host parents and they say they provided alcohol, but it was okay because they took the kids' car keys.
  • It is thirty minutes before curfew, and your child calls to ask permission to stay over at a friend's house instread of coming home.
  • Your chld says she is absolutely not going on the annual family ski trip because, "It's lame and I can't stand being cooper up with the family for a week!"

Family Dinner

The family dinner is a time when relationships are affirmed, the news of the day is shared, and coming events are discussed - a reconnections with those we most care about.  "Mealtime is often the only time in the whole day when everybody's in the same room having a conversation," says William Doherty, Ph.D., author of The Intention Family (Addison Wesley Longman, 1997).  Even if it is not everyday, sharing meals with your teens shows them they are important to you and that you care about their life. 

Support Family Dinner Day 2009!  (Click here for more information)

"Parent Talk" Party

 

Host a "Parent Talk" party at your home.  Invite the parents of your kid's friendship group, get connected, and have some fun!  The activity is available as a download  and includes step-by-step directions for hosing a party, with topics such as rules, curfews, dating, and more.  "Parent Talk" is about building community, supporting children and ourselves, and keeping teens safe and healthy.

Parent Talk Tool Kit Coming SOON!


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Shoulder to Shoulder: Raising Teens Together

 

 

Shoulder to Shoulder is a website developed by the University of Minnesota that offers resources dedicated to making the job of raising teens easier by connecting parents and caregivers, as well as sharing insights by those who have been there.