The Way to Talk With Teens

by Jiin, Lee

Have you seen the parents who have difficulty with their children because the children don’t want to talk to them? How about you? Were you a child who didn’t want to talk with your parents when you were teen-ages?

When children become teen-ages, many of them are reluctant to talking with their parents. Especially, boys are more likely to avoid talking with their parents than girls. Instead of having a time with parents, teen-agers prefer to hanging out and talking with their friends.

Even though there are children who are very close to their parents, they might feel uncomfortable when they are asked to talk with their parents about certain topics such as drugs, drinks, and sex. As for these kinds of topics, parents also may feel uncomfortable although they want to have much time to talk with their children.

However, it is important for both parents and children to have much time to have a conversation. The talk leads to the fact that parents can know what’s going on their children and children can learn about knowledge in a right way. So, what is the good way for parents to let their children open their mouths and talk to their parents?

According to the article, in order to have much time to talk to children, parents should catch the change when their children are in mood, for example, when they come into the kitchen to grasp snacks or family have a dinner together, and then they should   make the atmosphere light, so children can feel to have the talk which is about sensible topics such as drugs and sex is natural and no one feels embarrassed, and listen whatever their children say without any judgment. In addition, it’s a good way to show that parents also have a drawback, especially as for the parenting, and they have similar problems when they were in their children’s ages. Due to the fact that the main reason why children don’t want to talk with their parents is that they know what their parents respond to them, parenting experts advise that parents should hold back what they want to say from now and then. Also, it is good for parents to start to talk about sensible topics when children are still friendly enough to talk to their parents, in other words, before children shut their mouths and refuse to talk with their parents.

From my experience, I have seen many parents who have the problem that their children don’t want to talk to them. In fact, my parents have a same trouble with my younger brother. My brother, who is 14 years old, doesn’t want to talk with my parents. Even, he erased the Kakaotalk, which is the most popular messenger among the Koreans, when my mom kept sending the massages to him by the messenger. After I read this article, I found that if my parents try to listen to him without any judgment, this problem can be solved. I highly recommend this article to parents who have this kind of problem with their children.

 

OMG! Your teen actually talks to you? By Kelly Wallace, CNN(02/19/14)

http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/19/living/talking-to-teens-communication-parents/index.html?hpt=hp_bn11