My tip this week is to
Be Light-Hearted and Fun to Be With >>Listen
    
Do you yearn to spend quality time with your teenager? Do you wish he spent more time with you? Well, ask yourself this: are you fun to be with?
 
Sometimes parents take our job of teaching responsibility to our kids so seriously we lose track of fun and spontaneity. We wonder why our kids don’t want to spend time with us. Would you want to spend time with someone who is always trying to teach you something? Who turns everything into a lesson? Who gets on the soapbox and talks too darn much? Probably not.
 
While teaching lessons is very important, it shouldn’t define our relationship with our teenagers. And when I bring this point up to parents, it’s interesting to see how many of them see room for improvement in their behavior.  Parents can get so focused on the lessons we need to teach our kids, we forget that we can over do this to the point that we’re just not any fun to be around!
 
Summer is just beginning. I encourage you to lighten up your attitude. Decide that you are going to be fun to be with! Re-write the script a bit and re-discover your sense of playfulness and fun. You’ll probably find your teenagers much more ready to share their time with you.

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Teens…….

Til next time…I'm Sue Blaney.