The compounding effects of physical awkwardness, their desire for independence, and the mean behaviour of other students can be overwhelming for a teenager. Although it is really hard to offer relationship-rescue information in a short article, I wanted to share five ideas that might help you stay connected with your teen, and to support him or her better through this wild time.
In most of the workshops I conduct with parents of teenagers, I hear begging and pleading for help to "get the kids off those damn phones," and for parents with younger children, I hear "I'm tired of the screen battles."
Ours is an interesting generation because we grew up with maybe one or two screens in our homes. The Internet wasn't invented until I was in school getting my undergraduate degree! Some of us are using social media, smart phones, and tablets kicking and screaming whereas others have jumped with both feet into the personal computer era.