6 Tips to Give Your Teenager Dating Advice
If you are a parent to a teen, you will have to face the challenge of talking to your child about dating. Teenage is the time when most kids begin dating and you have to make sure that you give your teen useful dating advice in the right way. Here are a few tips you can use.
1. Cite your own example
When you start talking to your teen about dating without any basis, it will become a sermon of sorts. Don’t preach what you haven’t practiced yourself. Make your discussion come alive by telling your teen about your own dating experiences in your heydays. Share funny incidents and important anecdotes which you think will give your teen valuable insights about dating. What your teen absorbs from your example will be way more important that what he or she does from a monotonous lecture.
2. Give practical advice
All the dating tips that you used in your prime may not be applicable in your teen’s life because times have changed. Don’t give your teen advice that cannot be applied practically. For example, if you tell your child to avoid being on the phone with his or her date all day, he or she will find a loophole and chat on Facebook. Keep your dating advice practical, realistic, sensible and rational. Don’t give your teen a chance to outwit you and embarrass you.
3. Don’t micro manage your teen
One of the things you should take care of when you give your teen dating advice is to avoid micro managing him or her. Once you have finished giving your teen advice, give him or her some time and space. Don’t be obsessed about finding out details about who your teen is dating, where that girl or boy lives or what he or she does. If you come across as snoopy, your advice session may backfire and your teen may start hiding things from you.
