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

My tip this week is Take Inventory of Everything you Love About Your Teen >>Listen

The beginning of the new year comes with numerous traditions… including taking inventory and setting goals.  I’d like to encourage you to take inventory too… take inventory of everything you love about your teenager.

Now, if this sounds like a challenge to you, it means this exercise is extra-important. Yes, those of you who are dealing with the most ornery of teens need to do this exercise the most!

Traditional new-year goal-setting exercises include looking back on the previous year and identifying your successes. The theory here is to pat yourself on the back, recognize  and reward your strengths, and begin with a positive fresh feeling.Your teenager probably has not engaged in such an exercise, in fact the January doldrums may be setting in for your teen. This can be a particularly difficult time of year, and I’d like to urge you to bolster your teen’s ego and help her begin the new year feeling positive, strong and powerful. Have some fun with this… identify everything you love about your teen, and share it with him or her.   You might:

• list the five qualities he exhibits that make you most proud of him,
• name what you appreciate most about how she interacts with family members,
• share with him what impressed you about how he addressed challenges he faced,
• point out how much she is growing up and showing her maturity.

You could write a note, or a series of them; you could bring up the points over dinner one night or do it over several days or weeks.  In fact, it might be more effective if you make this exercise last, rather than making it a one-time event.

Let me know what happens when you do this by writing a comment here. I think you may be happily surprised! Thanks for subscribing to my 2 Minute Tips for Parenting Teens. 'Til next week…