Advice For Parents On How To Deal With Teen Children Dating

Just about all parents have some worries about the day when their teenage children will start dating and for a significant number of parents it marks the point at which their children are making the transition from childhood to adulthood. In many cases, it is also viewed as the point when your children take their first steps out alone and this is usually seen as a signal that they no longer need you. This is definitely not the case.

Dating is simply another stage on the long road of normal teenage development and they undoubtedly do still need you - and will continue to need you for a long time to come. Nevertheless, this can be a difficult period in a teenager's life and there is much which can be done do to make life simpler for both of you. As is the case with many other things, success in dating starts with education and it is crucial for you to get together with your teenagers before they start dating to discuss what makes a successful relationship. It is all too easy to assume that your children already understand the ins and outs of dating but they probably won't. When you think about it, a lot of their knowledge on the subject will probably have been gleaned from the television where most of the relationships are not designed to reflect the real world but merely to entertain the viewers.

Your children have to learn just what it means to be in a loving and supportive relationship and the best way to learn just what that means is to talk with you about your own personal knowledge and experience. This being said, it is also the case that your children will learn not merely from what they hear from you, but from what they see and so setting them a good example in the manner in which you conduct your own relationship is crucial. Once your children start dating you will need to enter into what is going to be an ongoing discussion about relationships. Your children's dates will not always go as you or they expect and they will need somebody to come to when they have a problem. Consequently, it is vital that you keep the lines of communication open and also that you continue to discuss how they should be treating others in a relationship as well as just how they should expect to be treated themselves. Meeting your teenager's date for the very first time can sometimes be a nerve wracking moment, but you should make this meeting as comfortable as you can and be both kind to and respectful towards your child's date.

And don't fall into the classic trap of giving the couple a lecture on this first meeting laying down the rules for going out with one another. Any rules which you decide to impose are for your son or daughter and not for his or her date and need to be discussed with your child alone and in private. In addition, while it is always possible that you will not be too impressed with your child's choice of date, you should not let your teenager or his date sense this and should go out of your way to be supportive. After you have taught your teenagers how to conduct themselves in a relationship you need to trust them to take their own decisions and should not step in unless you believe that the relationship is putting your teenager in danger.

It is not always easy to see your children growing up and getting close to new people. But, as long as you do your part and teach them what they should expect from and how they should conduct themselves in a relationship, then there is a very good chance that things will go well and that problems will be minimized for both you and your children.

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