6 Personal Experiences You Must Share With Your Teenager

Life Experiences Worth Sharing

Which are those of your life experiences that you must share with your teenage children, such that they can get insights on how to deal with their own? In context of this, here are some tips for teenagers’ parenting.

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Stories Of Pride And Achievement

Narrate the positive experiences of pride and achievement to your teenagers. These inspire and motivate them. However small an achievement it may have been, for example winning an athletics race in school. It sows the seed of aspiration and achievement in your teenager and is thus, one of the good tips for teenagers’ parenting.

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Stories Of Efforts And Perseverance

Another great tip for teenagers’ parenting is to share the stories of your efforts and perseverance. Such experiences exemplify a sense of ‘doing’ over mere “passivity’. It helps them in understanding the concept of ‘trying to one’s best of ability’. Very often the teenagers do not want to take the first step towards something new. This may be due to their fear of failure or being ridiculed or simply a procrastinating attitude. Your shared experience about the efforts put in, irrespective of the outcomes, can become an important life lesson for the teenager.

Sharing Stories Of Your Efforts And Perseverance Exemplify A Sense Of ‘Doing’ Over Mere “Passivity’.

Negative Life Experiences

Experiences of winning and succeeding are not the only ones worth sharing with your teenager. Negative life experiences, for example, of violence faced, trauma lived are as important to be shades This is one of the important tips for teenagers’ parenting. Parents cannot be seen as paragons of virtue only. Rather, some of your difficult and challenging experiences need to be shared too. It helps in modelling a spirit of safety, resilience, and adaptability in your teenager.

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Grief And Pain

Share your experience of loss, grief, or pain that you went through in your youth years. Sharing of such advice to a teenager is likely to teach your kids about the unpredictability of life. For example, Covid-19, a pandemic which was never ever imagined by anyone in this day and age. A shared experience can instil empathy and preparedness for unforeseen occurrences in your teenagers’ life.

Struggles With Money

Mention your struggles with money or any economic hardships you went through as a youngster, wherein you may have had to supplement your family income. These tips for teenagers’ parenting, when implemented, will help your teenager understand the value of money, savings, and a responsible way of spending their money. Teenagers usually are under immense peer pressure to be accepted at par with them whether they have means to do so or not. Some may even take to stealing and lying to fulfil their want for fancy gizmos and a lifestyle. A shared experience helps them in finding balance between excess and moderation of spending.

Incidents You Regret

Talk about regretful and impulsive acts as a teenager that landed you in trouble, for example due to excessive drinking or driving without a licence. Sharing such advice to a teenager will help them understand the consequences of reckless behaviour. They will also sense the accompanying emotions of shame and guilt at such immature behaviours.

Remember, that the way you communicate your shared experiences is equally important. Your tone and the words cannot be condescending or boasting towards your teenager. The purpose is to bond over certain commonalities of life experiences. So, go ahead and share the best of advice to a teenager child, such that they acquire the best of life skills.

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• How Does Parental Discord Impact A Teenager?
• Things You Must Talk About With Your Teen

Dr. Sanjana Seth is a Psychologist and Psychotherapist, registered with RCI, and holds more than two decades of practising experience with the healthcare organisations of the Armed Forces, as well as those operating as private. She is skilled in administering psychological assessments, providing therapeutic intervention and psychoeducation via talks, lectures, workshops, and literary articles. She has worked extensively for children with special needs, and has taught Psychology to students at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.