Today I stumbled across this parenting resource: http://www.radicalparenting.com
This basic premise is this: Parenting from the kids' point of view. It started when a teenage girl wrote a parenting book, telling parents what their teens wish they knew. It has since grown into a website & company that employs teenage interns to write articles for parents. While I think most parents know that parenting shouldn't be done on the whims of their children, I do think there is wisdom in the basic philosophy here. The basic philosophy being, "LISTEN TO YOUR KIDS!".
It's very easy to forget what it's like to be a teenager, or to gloss over the rough parts and instead choose to just remember the care-free days before real responsibility set in. It also is important to remember that the world is in many ways a different place than it was when you were growing up.
Take a minute and look around the website and see what you think. It's not a Christian site, so don't expect the advice on parenting to be expressly biblical. The more useful aspect of the site, I think, would be the perspective of these very articulate teenagers. There's a good chance they are communicating many of the same emotions that your child won't or can't express to you. I found this post from their blog interesting and a good example of what I'm talking about.
Also, this site claims to tell parents what their kids wished they knew. Let's turn that around and pose it as a question for us. What do you wish your kids knew that they don't seem to yet? I most likely won't post anything next week since it's the Thanksgiving holiday, so we'll let that be our discussion question for the month.
I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving!
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