A parenting tool that is very useful is role-playing. You can get your point across to your teenager without lecturing and your teen will be more open to learning through this pretend experience.
Difficulty: Easy
Time Required: N/A
Here's How:
- Recognize the times when role-playing would benefit your communication with your teenager. This generally is when you’re faced with a dilemma and you’re wondering if your teen would know what to do if the situation came up.
- Suggest a role-play situation. Don’t get too technical about it – like you stand here and say this, then I’ll walk in spin around and do this. That isn’t going to work. Ideally, you should be able to just talk this through, without props. Just use your imaginations.
- Try going for the worst case scenario in your role-play. Ask your teen how he/she would act if he/she wanted to get a detention from his/her teacher or what would he/she say in an interview if he/she didn’t want to get a summer job. This can help break the ice when trying to get a point across.
- Have your teen give his/her reaction to the role-play situation and answer any questions that come out.
- Give your opinion on the role-play and offer suggestions that will help your teen should the role-play situation become a real one.
Tips:
- Don’t always expect an ‘ah-ha’ moment when role-playing with your teen. Give him/her time to think things through and come back to the topic in a later conversation.
- While a role-play can help your teen feel more confident about a situation, do not stop talking about tough issues after you’ve completed a role-play about them with your teen. Communication about drugs, sex, peer pressure, etc. needs to be ongoing.
- Do you feel you have open communication with your teen?
Parenting Quizzes for Parents of Teens
