Parents

Being a parent is a hard job at the best of times, it can be very rewarding but also there are many frustations that come along the way.

Worrying about the health of our children is something very important, and because of this we want to do the best to make sure our children grow up with a healthy relationship to food as part of the growing process. There have been improvements in tackling childhood obesity over the past few years but there is still a long way to go.

Here we look at all aspects of parenting and bring you articles relative to all apsetcs of being a family. If you would liek to see anyhtign particular then just email us and we will see what we can do.

Sarah Newton is one of the world’s leading teen coaches. She enjoys a high profile and is one of the only Teen Coaches to have hosted her own eight part TV series ‘My Teen’s a nightmare – I’m Moving Out’. Her first book " Help! My Teenager is an Alien - the everyday situation guide for parents" was launched in March 2007 by Penguin and rarely drops out of the top ten parenting teenager books. Sarah believes that parents can have great relationships with their teenagers and still get all the boring things done and to this end she offers everyday practical advice.

Listening to your teen so they will talk.

Teenagers describe to me time and time again the following situation. They have an issue they are dealing with and they eventually decide to talk with their parents about it. So they pick their moment and start talking, but no sooner have they started then the parent has broken into a dialogue of advice about what they did as a teenager, how they would handle the situation and what the teen should do. The teen listens, then walks away feeling dejected and misunderstood. The issue remains unresolved.

So what is the way forward? Understanding their structure of interpretation, feeling how it must be to be a teenager in today's society and all the challenges that must bring. Point-of-View Listening as we call it. This is a challenging skill and will take you a while to get the hang of.

Point of View is a three-step process.

Listen with your lips shut - do not comment.
Ensure you are listening heart to heart.
Step into their point of view.
Let me give you an example of levels of Point of View and how this may pan out.

Imagine this situation. Your teenage daughter comes home having been the victim of a robbery. How do you respond?

1. Listen from your point of view.

"Well they didn't have mobile phones in my day, if you will have a phone what do you expect? You should report it, they cannot get away with this! I am never buying you anything again - you should have been more careful - I told you so!"

Well, I think we have all experienced this type of listening at one time or another.

2. Listening to their point of view.

"Are you OK? Are you hurt? Did you go to the police? Where did it happen?"

Here you are listening and just attempting to gain more information.

3. Listening from their point if view.

"That must have been really shocking for you and very scary. It must be challenging being a teenager today with all this added responsibility. How can I support you?"

Here you set into the teenager's body, looking at life through their eyes, responding accordingly.

When you use this type of listening, your tone must be neutral and you must ensure that you sound sincere.

I would like to leave you with these five steps to Point of View listening. Remember this is life-long learning!

Step and breath
Connect with your teenager heart to heart
Physically imagine yourself standing behind your teenager
Now look at life through their eyes.
Respond.
Remember to have great fun with this and let me know how this powerful tool works for you.

To get Free access to Sarah’s "3 easy proven techniques to instantly reduce stress in your home and dramatically improve the relationship with your teen" go to http://www.sarahnewton.com