Amazing Love
By Guest Blogger: Rick Zapf
How much do you love your teenager? We are called each day by the world religions to love each other but when it comes down to it how much do you love your teenager? I mean how much could you love them when your teenager shows up late for their curfew again? How much can you love when they put another dent in your car or are asking for more money? How much can you love them when they are doing things that you don’t approve of?
Parenting is not an easy job! And yes it feels like a job often because of the stresses involved with raising a teenager. If you aren’t there yet because you have younger children you know your current stress level now. The more parents I talk with they tell me parenting my child was so much easier than now as a teenager.
But parents it is our job to model the behavior we are seeking.
Ask yourself these questions…
How well do you control your stress?
How do you show that stress to others?
Is today positive or negative?
Would you change today if it meant the future could be better?
So today, right now, I want you to grab a piece of paper, a sticky note, envelope, and anything you can write on. I need you to do an inventory or a list of those things right now in your life that stress you. It could be short but that probably means you aren’t doing this justice or you may be a monk with no life distractions. Then after you have a completed list, I want you to circle the positive stressors in your life. Now you might be asking, “Rick what could possibly be positive?” But what I’m here to help you with is not only decrease the negative or bad stressors but also increase any positive stressors. For some, we work best under deadlines or pressures and those should be circled.
Other positives could be your extended family that help you in a pinch, but they could also be a negative stressor too!
I’m hoping that you can not only control your stress but you can also model the positives of the week, the day, the hour, or even the minute.
As we model appropriate behavior to our teenagers, they will begin to realize and mirror it to others and hopefully you.
Hang in their – parenting teenagers doesn’t have to be difficult!
If you haven’t listened to the
radio interview I did, with
Steven Diamond, click on it today.
Remember, my special offer by signing up for my FREE Parenting Newsletter at
www.Z1Publications.com you will receive my companion workbook for FREE.
Rick Zapf, MS
Teen Communication Consultant
www.Z1Publications.com
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By Guest Blogger: Rick Zapf
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