Featuring Lisa Bunnage, Parenting Coach

Duration: 1 minute, 49 seconds

The number one mistake parents make is to not listen to their children. This is for all age groups, toddlers up to eighteen, twenty-five, thirty it doesn’t matter.

Or, if they do listen, they will listen with the intent of gathering information to lecture with. They will use it to actually nag and lecture. That’s not what I mean by listening. Listening is listening to respect and understand.

The number two mistake that parents make is to sweat the small stuff and you really want to safe your battles for the big stuff because especially when they are teenagers, if you are always nitpicking every single little thing you are just going to become white noise and they are not going to listen to you when they should.

A very good example of letting things go is when they are teenagers let them have a messy room. It’s not that big a deal. Just give them that, if they are messy let them have that. That is small stuff.

The number three mistake parents make is not adjusting when your children are growing up. So parents will often say, but you used to love that. You use to love going out with the family and the kids are trying to communicate with them, yes I did but I’m older now, I’m sixteen years old I don’t want to go to Disneyland with the family.

That’s the difference as teenagers know how to be teenagers but parents don’t adjust to parenting teenagers. Listen to them, they will tell you how to parent them. Little things that you can maybe watch is one thing is don’t brag too much about them because they are probably going to humiliate you and make a liar out of you anyway.

It’s just natural that is what happens. You brag and they are going to embarrass you so kind of watch that. But, if you are really concerned that you need some help with parenting, please go and get some help.

Go to a counselor, go to a family or parenting coach because parenting is the hardest job in the world and it gets the least amount of training. So help yourself out and get some training.

Presenter: Ms. Lisa Bunnage, Counselor, Coquitlam, BC

Local Practitioners: Counselor