My teen client calls her dad a s@#t-head every chance she gets but what she really wants to say to him is this: “Every time you talk to me you’re trying to make some point and it gets old. Plus, you think you’re being funny but it hurts my feelings and that’s why I don’t talk to you, not because I’m a ‘mopey teenager.’ ”
I don’t believe she’s the only teen who feels this way…
Kids want connection, not counsel; it’s easy for parents to underestimate the value of presence—something that doesn’t do, but rather, is.
—Janet Sasson Edgette, PsyD