4 Keys To Peaceful Communication With Your Daughter, Part 1
Communicating with your teenage daughter can often be crazy-making.
You say one thing and she hears another, and vice versa. Here’s the good news, you’re not alone.
There are so many areas of conflict, but there is a very simple set of solutions to get back to peaceful communication. In this article series I’d like to share a few keys to restore harmony in your relationship.
Areas of Mother-Daughter Conflict Include But Aren’t Limited To:
* Independence/Power Struggles
* Curfew
* Friends you believe are negative influences
* Grades/Academic Performance
* Choices/Decision Making
* Homework/Procrastination
* Dating
* Drinking/Drugs
* Taking personal responsibility for her life/her priorities, etc.
* Respect/Attitude/Talking Back
* Parties without adult supervision
There are also some additional conflict areas including access to internet sites such as YOUTube, MySpace and Facebook.com. Anxiety levels between mothers and daughters often center around those sites and the content girls want to display as well as the amount of time girls spend on them.
As your eternal optimist and parenting coach, I am here to say, there are a few key ways to bridge these gaps and have more closeness and connection. Here is the first one. It may seem simple, but from coaching thousands of moms, this is one many of you could benefit from if you choose to reach out.
1. Talk to Other Moms Regularly
Learn what other moms are experiencing with their daughters. When children are younger, moms communicated more with each other on the playground, etc. As children become teens, it becomes harder to connect with other parents because teens’ social lives are in “their hands.”
Remedy: It is important to communicate and connect with other moms. Have lunch and talk. Reach out to others who are not necessarily your close friends as well. You can learn a lot about what YOUR relationship by talking to other moms. You can also “band together” to raise your teen safely and feel “in the loop” on her life.
Bonus Idea: Create a forum for other parents to discuss issues and concerns by hosting a lunch or brunch in your home. And you can choose to let your teen know or not know that you are doing so. That’s YOUR right as a parent.
That’s it for the first key ; in the next article i’m going to show you how to consistently maintain rapport with your teenage daughter even when you have to set a limit and say “no”.
I’d love to get your feedback on this first key to peaceful communication.
Tami
