Adolescent Healthy Behaviors

Adolescence is a very delicate time. It is a time for everyone in which things are changing, growing, maturing and this causes a lot of confusion and questions. It is because of this confusion and these questions that make adolescents a very crucial time for teaching and encouraging healthy behaviors. The ignorance and lack of proper knowledge is what causes many issues for maturing children in understanding what is happening to them,what is best for them now and in the future as well as the negative effects of poor choices. The majority of the issues that these kids deal with are based around their self esteem and self worth and this is what has be at the foremost of your plan for talking to adolescents. People have to be extremely careful when address bad, unhealthy, or maybe even just different thoughts, ideas, behaviors, etc then theirs that they dont misunderstand any guidance or suggestions as insults or put downs because adolescents are full of self doubt anyway. My personal thought is that the best idea for parents is that they need to make sure their kids are comfortable. Both parents and kids alike dread that important sit down "talk" because it is so awkward and informal. If parents make sure the lines of communication are left open and you talk freely about yourselves and your children that way if when something comes up they would likely just casually ask you and your initial intent is accomplished without any of that awkwardness for either side. The final point that parents should keep in mind is they really need to keep things on their level or they wont be interested let alone care. If parents talk about the effects of doing or not doing something will have in a few years or even months but their kids cant think past Friday night and who they are gonna go to the school dance with, its going to be near impossible them to look that far ahead to care about what you are discussing. Also along those lines, dont talk over their heads, make sure they understand you. Dont get into too many InfoPath topics or discuss a lot of minor details of things that they are just know beginning to understand within themselves or might not necessarily pertain to them. If they dont understand or dont care about what is being talked about they will loose interest very quickly and eventually tune it all out. So if parents can remember to keep conversations casual and light about things their kids really care about it will significantly help with those "difficult" conversations that have to be had or best of all they are so comfortable with talking to their parents and trust them that whenever issues arise in their lives that they bring them to the attention of their parents by asking questions they have or express interest in further information. Now that seems a little too good to be true but you never know...