What Parents Need to Know About Teen Friendships | Annie Fox | Episode 16

From the time our children can share a toy, friendships take on a role in their lives. As our children become teenagers, that role grows and friends take on a central place. Those teen friendships are very different from the ones in preschool and there are things parents are wondering: What is happening? How can I help? How can I get them to be friends with the right kids? Judy Davis and Sandy Fowler are getting answers to those questions and more from teen friendship expert Annie Fox. On this Mighty Parenting podcast, Annie will give us a peek inside the world of teen friendships and tell us exactly what parents need to know.

Real Talk explores a life skill. There are many life skills which parents need to teach their kids but there’s one we rarely think of—protecting your identity. Did you know, 10% of children under the age of 19 have had their identity stolen? In today’s Real Talk, Judy and Sandy discuss how to handle this with your teen or young adult.

A Favorite Quote from the Show:

Parents are not supposed to have the whole picture of what’s happening in our teen’s friendships. The goal isn’t to know everything, it’s to teach our kids to make good choices.

High Points About Teen Friendships:

Make space for your child to think, reflect, and figure out what friendship is to them.

Share your own experiences of friendship and ask your teen for ideas when you are facing a problem. It give you insight into how they think and you’ll likely get some good suggestions.

Don’t point out problems you see in your teen’s friendship—it will just get push back. Instead, encourage them to think about friendship and determine what they value in a friend. This lets them view relationships differently, identify potential friends, and also eliminate people who would not be good friends.

Teach your teen life skills like conflict resolutions, emotional regulation, and acceptance of the fact that we cannot control other people, we can only control our response to other people.

Our Guest On Teen Friendships:

Annie Fox, M.Ed., an award-winning author and educator in the realm of character development and SEL (Social and Emotional Learning), has been a trusted online adviser to teens and parents since 1997. Host of the popular podcast Family Confidential, Annie’s books include: The Girls’ Q&A Book on Friendship, Teaching Kids to Be Good People and the ground-breaking Middle School Confidential™ book and app series. Learn more at AnnieFox.com.

More from our Guest:

• To learn more or connect with our guest, visit http://www.anniefox.com/
• Get a copy of Annie’s books through the links below.

The Girls’ Q&A Book on Friendship: 50 Ways to Fix a Friendship Without the DRAMA

Teaching Kids to Be Good People: Progressive Parenting for the 21st Century