Your teenager could be on holiday this week. Do you have any plans for their summer? Are they planning for the summer? Unless either or both of you put some thought into it, it can easily drift over long weekends when you get up late, lie around your house, play games, or scroll endlessly on social media. there is.
Most parents are worried that teens spend too much unstructured time during the summer, even though most of us recognize that unstructured time is valuable. doing. As with everything in parenting, we need to strive for some balance. They will meet their need to relax and feel “away” from school, keeping them busy and lazy for a while, continuing to stimulate them developmentally.
We know that the sleeping habits of teens are different for children and adults. Teens are usually more awake at night and more tired during the day. School timetables can mean a punishable early start for many teens, after which they are unable to take the corresponding rest at night. Therefore, sleeping until lunch on Saturday may reflect the need to regain lost sleep, not a sign of laziness. Summer may also be the time to regain some of the sleep you missed during the semester.
There were times when I would have insisted on boring your teenager by not planning too much for them. Boredom is a great stimulus for creativity. Unfortunately, in the age of mobile phones and tablets, digital content is constantly flowing, so teenagers never get bored. And they know it. Indeed, I go as far as they say they are looking for it. Given how rewarding it is for the hedonic center of their brain.
Therefore, avoiding plans to spend time is likely to lead to a dependence on mobile phones, and in September you need to curb your mobile phone habits and free up time to focus on your studies. If so, it can lead to bigger challenges.
However, the plan must be a shared task. If you direct their summer plans, you are likely to get considerable resistance. So if you weren’t planning with them, it’s time to do it. As with many important conversations with teens, speaking “shoulder-to-shoulder” can be a great success in communication. Instead of sitting at the kitchen table, suggest a walk or drive, or get them involved in a shared task with you and use it as an opportunity to discuss their summer.
Be aware that in discussions, you spend more time listening than speaking. They may not have great creative suggestions about what they want to do, but drawing them in about their likes and dislikes, hopes and dreams can often provide guidance for fascinating activities. From the beginning, you may want to suggest that they think about their summer in a group of weeks. Sometimes you need to be productive, some time you need to be unproductive, and some time you need to be family-friendly (if you take a break this summer, it’s probably a family holiday).
Covid’s rules have been relaxed and Gaeltacht’s summer course is back on track. Sure, June is the preferred month to get busy with Gaeltacht, so most people probably already have teens down. A staple of this teenage summer activity is all the treble of Ireland’s little productive learning, lots of fun, and a bucket load of social involvement. This is a good example of use that benefits both during the summer hours.
If they are old enough, for productive time you may want them to think about part-time work. Most formal part-time jobs require teens to be 16 years of age or older, but usually friends and family do informal jobs that can occupy sons and daughters. There is a possibility. .. If you can’t do that, make a list of “paid” household chores that you pay to others.
Some families may be worried that if they leave it to their friends and their neighbors’ devices, their sons and daughters will be nearly misconducted. This can happen, but it is rare if you have a good level of communication and have done enough work in the past with listening and setting limits. It is also helpful to have transitive knowledge about who their friends are. Downtime with friends is important, at least they aren’t isolated in the bedroom just on the office phone.
Finally, how do you like to spend your family time, and how do you think they can enjoy spending family time? In most cases, it may have to meet the needs of everyone, even if it only meets the needs of some members at some point, in order for it to feel successful and friendly. Hmm. The more you talk about it and plan it, the better it can be.
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