How Can Parents Protect Their Teenagers?
Ann Christen advises parents to employ a number of management strategies to prepare and protect their kids during the critical teenage years. She recommends the following: • Help your teen find safe, healthy ways to experiment with being independent. Decide which battles are worth fighting (e.g., drinking and driving) and which battles you can safely afford to lose (e.g., your daughter wanting to dye her hair green!). • Be sure you know who your teen is hanging out with, where they are, and what they’re doing. For example, be aware of the temptation teenage boys might have to surf the Internet for porn sites. (In this case, installing an Internet filter on your home computer would serve as a safeguard.) • Get to know your teenager’s friends (and their families). Open your home to your child’s friends and encourage them to spend time there, preferably when you are at home. • If your teenager’s behavior requires it, set and enforce curfews. • Encourage your teenager to participate in gro
