Listen to what your child has to say.
Don’t live your life through them. Let them make their own choices and live their life how they want to.
Don’t belittle their choice in friends. Furthermore, try to maintain your own friendships.
Reflect on your own childhood frequently. Identify mistakes your parents made, and make an effort to avoid passing them on to the next several generations. Every generation of parents/children gets to make a whole set of new successes and/or mistakes.
If you’re trying to quit a habit yourself, look into groups that can help you overcome it. Always get support, and have someone you can talk to when you begin to get a craving for your habit. Remember that you’re not only helping yourself, but you’re helping your child as well.
Improve your child’s social skills.
Address your needs to be loved, but value your children’s needs over others. Do not abandon your children for your love interests. Make your child a priority when you are dating, and do not put your child in danger by introducing someone new into the household that you do not know well. Children need to feel safe, secure and loved. If you are suddenly leaving them out and not addressing their needs in order to tend to a new boyfriend or girlfriend, your children will grow to feel insecure and abandoned. Love is needed by everyone, but not at the expense of your child’s emotional health. This also applies to older children.
Encourage introspection by sharing with your children your own self-evaluations.
Do not share your own past misbehaviour with your children because they will compare themselves to you and thus, expect less from themselves. “So! You were like that too”.
A teen who is on the brink of adulthood needs the support of a parent more than ever. Do not think that just because they are almost 18 or 21 years old that you can leave them to figure it all out on their own. Do not intervene/interfere unnecessarily, however. You have to walk a fine line.
Reference
Taken from: Be A Good Parent
