CONTENTS
- Tools for Parenting Teens
- Links to Learn From
- Inside Your Teen’s World
- Learn Their Lingo
- A Little Encouragement…And Humor
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ARE THEY REALLY GROWN UP?
Jim Hancock couldn’t help noticing that families, schools and churches spent 18+ years raising children–or at least people who left their homes, schools, and youth groups still feeling more like children than adults. And like a lot of parents, teachers, and youth workers, he couldn’t help feeling a little bit angry and afraid about this. In “Raising Adults” you’ll get a chance for some do-overs, and you’ll learn how you can work to prepare kids for life in the real world.
Learn more about and purchase the eBook, “Raising Adults” here:
http://www.youthspecialties.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=1577
*Save 30% off the retail price of “Raising Adults” when you use Coupon Code YPNAG3 and order by 9/3/08.
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1. TOOLS FOR PARENTING TEENS
This week we have an excerpt from a free eBook by Jim Hancock, called “Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids.” With the new school year approaching, we felt this first thing would be a good one for you. Check out the link at the end of the excerpt to find the rest of this eBook.
THING ONE:
“DO YOU HAVE YOUR JACKET-HOMEWORK-GYM-BAG-BACK-PACK-TICKET-KEYS?”
I’m not kidding when I say your children will despise you if you don’t stop treating them like babies. They’ve probably already warned you.
“Do you have your jacket-homework-gym-bag-back-pack-ticket-keys?” is one of the cruelest things one human being can say to another. Yet it is the parting shot delivered by millions of parents as their children walk out the door each morning. Just when things were going so well… You couldn’t let well enough alone could you; you hadda go for the cheap shot.
“Bye, Mom!”
“Bye, honey — do you have your jacket-homework-gym-bag-back-pack-ticket-keys?”
You hate to see that kind of thing happen in a nice family. Cryin’ shame.
The kid feels like crying because he thinks his mother is an insufferable nag–just the effect Mom was going for.
And Mom feels like crying because her boy lacks a certain, shall we say, initiative, that makes her wonder how he’ll ever, in a million years, make anything of himself when he can’t take responsibility for something as simple as getting out the door dressed and ready for the day.
I have good news and bad news. The bad news is, if that kid doesn’t know how to identify and collect what he needs for the day, it’s because his parents taught him, diligently and day-by-day, that they are in charge of such things. They taught him that needs assessment is beyond him and better left to experts (like them, for instance). They taught him and he learned, OK?
That’s the bad news. The good news…is… Actually, there is no good news. Not yet.
Why this compulsion in otherwise sane adults to hijack kids’ opportunity to learn what we all know they have to learn if they’re not going to be eaten by wolves the minute they leave the asylum? I get it but I don’t get it.
Heck, maybe you’re one of those parents (it happens). If so, this is fair warning. Some day you won’t be there to ask your son if he has his jacket-homework-gym-bag-backpack-ticket-keys. You’ll have the flu or you’ll take a trip or go out to breakfast or something–and only the fact that you live in South Florida, where temperatures are moderate and citrus trees abundant, will prevent him from freezing before he starves.
If you’re lucky, he’ll get some pants on before he heads off to school where he will make you look so bad, you’ll put your home on the market and move to a neighborhood where no one knows your name.
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Jim Hancock invested two decades as a church-based youth worker. Now he spends his days in Leucadia, California, writing and creating digital movies and learning designs for youth workers, parents, and adolescents. He’s the author of “The Justice Mission,” as well as many other resources, and co-author of “The Parent’s Guide to Helping Teens in Crisis.”
Get the rest of Thing One, along with the other “Ten Things We Should Never Say to Kids” here:
http://www.thetinycompanycalledme.com/1573/25301.html
2. LINKS TO LEARN FROM
Steering Teen Drivers to the Straight and Narrow
http://www.boston.com/lifestyle/articles/2008/08/12/steering_teen_drivers_to_the_straight_and_narrow/
Up to Age 11, Most Kids Aren’t Heavy Internet Users
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=88340&Nid=45978&p=251794
Crying Foul Over Online Junk Food Marketing
http://businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2008/tc20080811_394016.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index_news+%2B+analysis
3. INSIDE YOUR TEEN’S WORLD
…Random things you may not have heard about…
Online Student-Teacher Friendships Can Be Tricky
http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/08/12/studentsteachers.online/
Stardoll: A virtual world for tweens and teens with 20 million users
http://www.stardoll.com/en/
The Jonas Brothers invade NYC, and Fans Go Crazy
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hLRl6bLgRsEvydI2WEuMeGfnrmSwD92I56L00
4. LEARN THEIR LINGO
…Some slang and texting lingo for you to speak (or at least understand)
- Pearl = To leave. “I’ll catch you later. I’m about to pearl.”
- Pigeon = an ugly girl. “Quit mackin’ on those pigeons over there.” 2. a girl who goes with all the guys, whether or not she has a boyfriend, usually just for sexual favors.
5. A LITTLE ENCOURAGEMENT…AND HUMOR
“Few things are more satisfying than seeing your own children have teenagers of their own.”
~ Doug Larson
