Helping Your Troubled Teen Girl Communicate Better

Helping your troubled teen girl communicate better

Communicating with your teen girl can be difficult. You so desperately want her to talk to you, but she just doesn’t seem to want to open up. Here are some ways to help your teenager open up more to you.

Don’t Push It

The more you nag her or force her, the less she’ll want to talk to you. If you can do it (as much as we know it’s hard), try taking a step back from asking her a lot of questions. One or two questions per day should be enough to show you are interested and invite her to engage in conversation with you.

Be Available

Some parents are busy or make themselves busy when they start to feel rejected. It’s important to be available to your teenager, even if she doesn’t take advantage of it. There may be times when she wants to talk, but you’re not around. This can make her close up even more.

If she does come to you at the wrong time, be sure to let her know you will be available in X minutes. Just be sure to check back with her in X minutes to show you really do care and want to talk to her.

Do Something with Her

Most teenagers don’t want to sit face-to-face with an adult. They would rather be doing something while they talk. This means you can open the lines of communication by engaging in an activity with your daughter. The activity has to be one where you are with her and can talk if the mood arises, so going to the movies is not a good choice. Going on a hike, painting, or doing some other hobby may be some ideas. Brainstorm options with your teen girl to come up with something fun you both will enjoy.

Go Somewhere Just the Two of You

If you’re feeling disconnected to your daughter, take some time to be with just her. It can be amazing how quickly the connection can be reestablished once you get all of the distractions away. Once that connection is there, the conversation may come much easier.

Turn to Havenwood Academy for Help with Your Troubled Teen Girl

We work with troubled teen girls every single day. We invite you to learn more about our school and the programs we offer, if you’re interested in boarding school for your daughter. If not, we encourage you to visit our blog regularly for more tips on how you can help your adolescent through this difficult life stage.

Our mission is to help troubled teen girls turn their life around, so they can become successful women someday. Contact us today for more information.

 

Guest post from Tyler Jacobson: father, husband, and freelancer, with experience in writing and outreach for parent and organizations that help troubled teen girls. Tyler has offered humor and research backed advice to readers on parenting tactics, problems in education, issues with social media, mental disorders, addiction, and troublesome issues raising teens. Connect with Tyler on: Twitter | Linkedin

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