Parenting 101

DC Curry who is the youth pastor at Granger Church had a phenomenal post on the insight from teenagers about why they don’t talk to their parents.  Parents, ever wonder why your students don’t open up?  This was a candid talk with his teens in one of their Bible classes.

“This is intended to help parents and students communicate better, not to badmouth parents or pick a side.

This is what they said:

• “They are so much older than me, we are not on the same level.”
• “They have authority over me, so I might get in trouble if I tell them something bad I did.”
• “They think everything is so much simpler than it really is.”
• “They put a lot of pressure on you.”
• “I just don’t tell them anything because I don’t want to disappoint them.”
• “They already have so much on their plate, I don’t want to add to their plate.”
• “They are just going to judge me.”
• “I don’t know my parents.”
• “Sometimes I just want a simple answer but they keep going on and on and on….”
• “Every time I talk to them, it’s always a lecture, they never listen to what I have to say.”
• “My dad always has the right answer so it’s not worth it.”
• “They never listen to what I’m going through but they always want to tell me what to do.”

His observations were that students want to talk to their parents but their are road blocks that are in the way.  Thought this was great insight for all of us.  What would your teenagers say?