Is parenting teens a sport or a responsibility? According to ABC News, Tommy Jordan is getting quite a bit of recognition for his parenting teens skills by shooting bullets through his defiant daughter's laptop. If he was looking for spectators for this new game he invented, he has clearly been successful with 246,000 likes on YouTube. What a great sport!
Parenting Teens: Are we Missing the Point?
What's missing for me in all the sensationalism is the potential long-term effects of the bridge this father successfully built in his daughter's brain while playing with guns. In one 8-minute video, he set a memory in concrete. This is a memory that is not likely going away and less likely to be the endearing story told around this family's Thanksgiving dinner table in the years ahead.
Though I completely understand the frustration caused by a troubled teen and the stress it can create in a home, when parenting teens, our response is still our responsibility. It is our job to recognize when we need help parenting teens; unloading six bullets into a laptop is a pretty clear neon sign, "Help!"
Parenting Teens: Understanding the Teen Brain
Here is what we know to be true; the teen brain is not fully developed. There is a gap. They are not defective; they are just incomplete. It is our responsibility while parenting teens to bridge that gap with the tools our kids need to navigate life and become healthy adults. Building a safe, functional and secure bridge in the teen brain takes work. If we don't have the tools, skill or knowledge, doesn't it make sense to hire someone who does?
No comments:
Post a Comment