Your little children are the most precious things in your life. You try your best to shelter them at all times, and that’s just fine. Eventually, however, they are going to grow up to be teenagers and shielding them from certain realities about this world will, without a doubt, become so much tougher. You’ll wish you could talk to them and warn them about these things, but they’re just a tad too young to be discussing stuff like sex, drugs and porn with, don’t you think?
In any case, if you get the chance to talk to your teenage kid in the future today, what would you say to them? Here is the kind of sound parental advice for future teenagers that Casey Mullins, writing for Babble.com, would hypothetically say, specifically to her daughter.
Typical teenage issues
Much of what Mullins had to say are pretty much standard parental advice about typical teenage issues. Drugs, for instance, are expensive and dangerous. Porn is so fake and a total waste of time. Tattoos and piercings can be cool, but must be done safely. As for clothes, wear what’s comfortable and avoid being trashy. Sex can be awkward but also great when done with someone you love. Gossip and mean girls should be avoided at all times. Learn as much as you can and have respect for everyone. Mullins even has advice about menstruation, that it’s perfectly normal. These are all typical teenage issues that we parents will all have to talk about with our kids when they enter that crucial phase of their lives.
Peer pressure advice
However, what stood out for me were the peer pressure advice that she shared and the one about jail.
For peer pressure, one of the many typical teenage issues facing our children today, Mullins offers really sound parental advice for future teenagers: LIE YOUR FACE OFF. While lying is something we parents do not really encourage in our children, this is one peer pressure advice that makes a lot of sense. By lying, our kids can deftly avoid bad stuff—from smoking to trying drugs—that their peers typically egg them on to do. Personally, this is the type of peer pressure advice that parents should actually tell their kids.
No bailout for kids
Mullins’ stand regarding jail also caught my attention. She says she would never bail her kid out should she ever land in jail for anything, although that is something most parents would probably not believe. Of course we will bail our children out of jail, because that is what parents do. However, I totally agree with her when she said that knowing that no one’s going to bail them out is the best motivation for our kids to never get arrested in the first place.
Click here to read the article in full.
