When your children are little, you purchase things for them that they may need or want. Once they hit the teenage years, that’s a different story. As the parent of a teenager, you need to have a plan for teaching teens to save money. When you child hits the teenage years the things they want seem to increase and so does the price. They still seem to think you have all the money in the world and you can and should buy them whatever they want.

Once they hit 16, they should get a job. But it can start earlier than that if you want it to. They can mow lawns, shovel sidewalks, or babysit. Working hard and making money will teach them the value of a dollar. Once they start making money they will probably want to spend quickly too. Teaching teens to save money may be difficult at first, but you need to do it.

Teaching teens to save money is important for their future. They need to know why they should save and how to do it. You may need to learn yourself so you can teach your teens to save money, but it will be a valuable lesson for you as well. The first thing you need to do is take them to the bank and set up a savings account for them.

Once you do this you need to set them up on a budget. Teaching teens to save money through a budget is one way to make this happen. You need to gather all their bills and their pay checks. Their checks will be different since they are probably not guaranteed the same number of hours each week.

You need to teach your teens the reasons why they need to save money. These reasons can include saving for a car, a special date, new clothes, or college. Teens want expensive things and when it gets to a point where they have their own money, you should consider making them pay for most of those things.

Teaching teens to save money can be a very difficult thing to do. You need to stand your ground when they try to tell you they have no need to save money. It may be hard for you, but you can do it and you will thank yourself for it in the future.

Your teen will thank you when they have a major repair that is needed on their car, or if they have to buy tires for it, or they find a new pair of shoes they “must” have. They will also be thankful when they are grown, married, and have their own kids and need money to buy their first house.

There are many reasons why teaching teens to save money is so important. Showing them how to save money will not only help them now, but in the future as well. They will be so happy you taught them these things later in life when they have a family and retirement to think about.

In today’s society your appearance matters, and increasing numbers of people are striving to improve their look, sometimes at any cost. They are becoming obsessed with acquiring the myriad of products which claim they can help them improve their physical appearance.

If you are a parent and you have an overweight teenager, then you surely would want to help them lose weight safely and successfully, and without resorting to the quick fix methods which some so-called experts promote.

Here are 5 things you can do:

1. Your teen needs help to make their decision to lose weight. The first thing you should do is to talk to your teen. Ask them what they think about themselves and how they feel about their appearance. If the answer comes back in the negative then its time to ask your teen what they want to do about it.

You can nudge the process along by giving your teen some ideas on how they can progress. Ask them if they are keen to lose weight. Once you have both come to a decision, start planning how your teen is going to lose weight safely and healthily but ultimately, successfully and what your role will be. Your child has just made a major decision in their life and it is absolutely essential that you, the parent/guide/role model follow up the original impetus with your unconditional support.

2. With the above in mind, it is best to alter your eating and exercising patterns together. If you really want to help your child to lose weight, you should try devising a plan of attack to help them lose weight effectively. An example would be a diet which includes those foods low in fat and sugar content as well as plenty of regular exercise.

3. Search out some cheap weight loss programs which suit you both and try them out for size. Statistics say that most people who enroll in these types of program quit long before the program ends, so it is vital that parents encourage and support their teens so they don’t become another line on a failure report.

4. Seek advice from health professionals or others who have the necessary expertise in cognitive-behaviour therapy and weight loss programs. Now that obesity has become one of the major problems of todays teens, authorities are turning to psychotherapists for help in identifying and alleviating the causes and assisting in the weight loss struggle.

5. Ask your teen how they would feel about attending a weight loss camp or similar residential weight loss programs. The battle to lose weight can be a distressing experience for them and giving them an exciting new environment to experiment with can greatly help them to carry on with their fight.

Your teens’ success in losing weight starts with you. Help them as much as you possibly can by sharing the same experiences they have along the way. This will not only help them reach their goals but will strengthen the bond between you.

In some respects, you do not know what parenting is until your children hit their teens. It’s a whole new ball game. All of a sudden you realize that there is this huge gap between you and your kid and the more you try to fix it, the more it seems to broaden. Communication between you and your child seems to be dead. These are probably the toughest years!!

So what do you do to make it better?

Here are a few tips:

• Try and get into their heads. Do not assume that because you do not like something, your teen does not like it too.

• Remember to always be truthful to your teen. No matter how old your child grows, he/she looks at you as an example. If you want your teen to be truthful, you need to first be truthful. Honesty is the best policy you can instil in to them

• Do not jump into advising; first listen to what your teen has to say. Be empathetic.

• Your job during their teens is to spur and encourage them. If you are one who keeps criticizing, they are never going to want to communicate with you.

• You need to be available for them whenever they need you. They may want to talk in the middle of the night, it is important that you talk to them when they are willing to talk.

• If you are wrong, apologize. It takes a big person to apologize. Your teen will respect you much more for it.

• Don’t wait for your teen to ask you for help, sense it and then do your best to help them

• Respect your teen. Treat him/her like an adult. Give then their space.

• Remember to use words like “please”, “thank you” and “I love you” frequently with your teens.

Why is it important to raise fearless children? Simply put; fears paralyze, crush self esteem and destroy dreams.

I’ve worked with hundreds of parents over the past few years that have trouble helping their children overcome fear. The reason? They themselves can’t break through the barrier of fear and it’s then passed down from generation to generation.

I’d like to offer hope first, then a challenge.

It is possible to live free from fearful anxiety attacks, constant worry, over exaggerating stories that perpetuate the fearful attacks going off in your mind. People achieve freedom from fear on a daily basis but it takes diligent practice and guided instruction.  You can handle it, but you must tell yourself you can and believe it.  I didn’t say it would be easy, just that it is possible.

Here are a few tips you can use to challenge yourself while encouraging your teenager.

1. Ask how your teenager perceives themselves – Does your teenager feel ugly? Unlovable? Like they don’t measure up? Be transparent with them if that is how you also feel, but understand it is a belief that can be dramatically altered by learning a few powerful concepts and techniques.

2. When the time ‘feels right’, let them know you’d like to help them move away from their pain, not towards it. – Say this in a gentle way. You are not the enemy but when a child feels hurt, they often forget that so the timing and delivery of your message is very important.

3. Ask what you can do to help them when they feel frightened. – No matter who we are, being frightened is something that can happen to the best of us. Let them know you want to help through their feelings of fear but they must get beyond it.  You may need assistance in this yourself so make a commitment to work through it together.  Often your teen will appreciate working toward the same goal, which can often bridge a very wide gap.

4. Hold them – That’s right, give them a hug or put your arm around their shoulder.  Remember that they sometimes want to be held to, no matter how big, how old, how macho, how silly or how angry they might be on the outside. They are still young on the inside just like you are.

5. Ask what they think some of their trigger points are that remind them of the original hurt. – If the pain is not resolved, released or forgiven, the pain is buried and brought up again with a trigger of something said or done. Forgiveness is the only way past this problem.

6. Spend a few minutes of each day just the two of you. – You don’t have to say one word, just be in the same room with them a few minutes of each day. You will be amazed at what they begin to share with you on their own after a few days or weeks of doing this simple thing.

7. Remind them, and yourself, to be patient. – It will take time to bring about the changes you both want to see in your relationship.

It’s about being there, being present, and connecting to the best relationship you could possibly have with your teen.

Question – We are having increasing difficulty dealing with curfews in our home. Our teenagers want to stay out later and later and it’s hard for us to trust them. What can we do?

Answer – Isn’t it amazing how kids believe that they can have fun only after a certain time of evening (or early morning)?

Curfew ripe for power struggles

Curfew can be an area ripe for power struggles, conflict and frustration. When the subject of curfew comes up, many parents hear the same old refrains:

“Everyone else’s parents let them stay out as long as they want.” (check it out, it’s probably not accurate)

“When I get to be a parent, I’m going to let my kids stay out as late as they want.” (right)

If not handled properly, curfew can become a battleground with the parents playing warden to the teenage inmates, and kids sneaking out and/ or not coming home in order to “prove” their independence.

Control vs. management

Curfew can also be an area that can illustrate a useful model for managaging the teenage years.

Many times when parents phone me about a teenager, they say something like, “I can’t seem to control my kid.”

The problem here is one of control vs. management. Trying to control a teenager is like trying to make a gorilla wear pants:

It’s only going to frustrate you and make the gorilla angry.