Raising teens. Parenting teens. Just like having a baby, it sounds simple.  Until you have to do it! Then whoa!

Remember dreaming of the day your baby would arrive? Then you’re there with your beautiful amazing newborn, and trying to get them to sleep feels like a hopeless venture.  And then one night, they sleep through the night! In the middle there? Before they sleep? I can get rough! We parents get through and so do those wee humans.

Then one day, boom, you have a teenager! You’re there, with your teen who you have known and loved since they were adorable and squeezable, and suddenly trying to get them to do, oh, anything, feels like an exercise in frustration. And then they are self supporting adults! In the middle there, in that transition to adulthood, it can get rough! But, we can get through, and so can those teens.

How do you get through?

Here are 7 “Simple” Ways

1. Stop.

2. Look.

3. Listen

4. Say “Hmmm, thank you for asking. Let me think about it.”

5. Don’t ask how their day was, definitely don’t ask how school was! Instead try asking abut something in the news, sports, or even to tell you about their favorite tictoc or post today.

6. Make regular family dinner plans

7. Ask, don’t tell.

And the truth? These are simple, and hard! We know that. We get that. We know that you can do this. How do we know? We practiced them long and hard.