Hi – Sue Blaney here with your Parenting Tip from Parenting Teens Info.com

My tip this week is
Expand your communication tools >>Listen

I want to ask you to take on a new challenge this week. I challenge you to make yourself try out a new online communication tool. If you are like too many parents of teenagers that I see, you are in danger of becoming like a dinosaur – extinct. Your teenagers download music, upload videos, tune into podcasts, use widgets, applets and mashups. This is all second nature to them.  Your teenagers are miles ahead of you in their use of media and communication tools….and it’s time you get caught up.

The gap is the widest between parents of high school and college students and your teens. Some of you are even intimidated by tele-seminars and webcasts – and this stuff is easy! You need to force yourself to get comfortable with these new tools for communication. Observe the difference when you look at parents with younger kids – they engage more with the new social tools and therefore will be better equipped to guide their kids. There’s a lot at stake here and I hope you’ll accept my challenge because you don’t want to be left behind.

Now – have some fun with this. This week do something you’ve never done and expand your skills. If you don’t know how to text yet, tackle that.  If you have never downloaded music or listened to a podcast, download i-tunes and explore. It’s free, it’s not scary and you are sure to find something that’s of interest to you. I just downloaded Oprah’s interview with the author of Edgar Sawtelle and found it riveting. If you don’t want to get on Facebook, find another social network to join. There are social networks for everything from weight watchers to firefighters, to Ellen Degeneres fans and military veterans. Look through www.ning.com and find one that interests you. Poke around. Be curious.

And keep at it.  Force yourself to get out of your comfort zone. Ask your teenager to show you how she searches for friends on MySpace; have your son show you how he engages with gamers across the globe. Look over their shoulders, and get comfortable with this new world. And keep at it, not just this week, but every week. Even if you are pretty savvy in the online world, keep working at staying ahead of the changes. In order to be the guide and mentor your teen needs you really can’t allow yourself to be left in the dark anymore.

So there’s my challenge. Tackle a new communications or online tool today. Don’t let yourself become obsolete.

Thanks for subscribing to my Two-Minute Tips for Parenting Teens……. Til next time…I'm Sue Blaney