Decalogue for a summer with teenagers
Some teenagers prefer to plan their summer themselves to take advantage of the rest time and enjoy their hobbies. On the other hand, others are wishing that the vacations arrive to make the vague one and the parents become desperate, reason why the squabbles and the annoyances arrive. This situation can be avoided with good planning.
Decalogue to enjoy summer with teenagers
1. Positive attitude. We are the adults and we have to be the first to put on a good face. In adolescence, the course tends to generate many tensions. It is important not to take the summer as a moment of revenge with our children.
2. Choose destinations for all tastes. It is clear that children are not the ones who have to mark the destiny of the whole family during the whole summer, but when there are teenagers, we will have to look for plans with which we know they will enjoy. It's also your vacation. You can intersperse some family days in some lost place with others in an area where you have people of your age to go with.
3. Establish some basic rules from the beginning. In dealing with adolescents it is essential that all parties know the rules of the game. If the rules are imposed on the fly, we will have little negotiation capacity and they will feel very frustrated because they do not know what the limits are. However, if we establish them from the beginning, they will not be questioned each time and they will know how to assume their responsibilities when they fail to comply with them.
4. Remember that we were also teenagers. We can not ask them to be adults because they are not. A look of tenderness about our children will take away all those behaviors that are "things of the age".
5. Organize the times so that everything fits. The excess of boredom is the worst of the allies for the apathy of a teenager. The days have to be structured, even if they include times without anything programmed.
6. Find plans that everyone likes. Possibly, spending the whole day reading in a quiet environment is not the summer paradigm for our teenagers. However, there are many family plans suitable for all ages. Sport is a good opportunity to participate together in some activity.
7. Let them give their opinion. They are no longer small children who are only informed of the next destination. You have to let them propose options, give opinions and make decisions for the family as a whole.
8. Learn to participate in your world. They care about different things: their music, video games, comics, fashion * We can use the summer to let them explain themselves and explain to us. They will feel heard and important. They need to know part of the family even if we do not share tastes and hobbies with them.
9. A good dose of technological disconnection. Parents and children, because at this point the teenagers are not the only ones "hooked" to the mobile, they would have to agree to a much less common use of the technologies in summer. Many times the chosen destination favors it because there is bad coverage. The important thing is not to fall under the tyranny of the immediate response and the stress of multitasking.
10. Think, as a couple, in the good of each one. The stress of the year usually leads us to store the bad moments and bad behaviors of our children. Now we have the opportunity to recap and review the best that they have, look at them with different eyes, enjoy them and with them and feel proud of what they have become.
María Solano
More information in the books:
- Rediscover the family, by Nicolás Álvares de las Asturias
- The 7 habits of highly effective families, by Stephen Covey.
