All About Teen Issues

Parenting teens, teen tips, positive teenagers, using positive for teenagers

There are two types of people in the world- the proactive and the reactive. Proactive people take responsibility for their lives whereas reactive people blame others and suffer from “victim-itis.” Proactive people make things happen whereas reactive people let things happen to them.

So one key skill to develop in your teenager is to help them take responsibility for their own happiness and direction in life as this helps them to be in the driving seat of their life and not just a passenger.

The way you can help your teenager develop being proactive is to be a role model yourself and to watch the language you use to describe things happening around you. Reactive language takes power away from you and gives it to something or someone else. It’s like giving the remote control of your life away to someone else, whereas proactive, positive language let’s you choose which channel you want to be on.

So this week just pay attention to your language and notice how you react in different situations and get curious about yourself. Here are some ideas for using more positive, proactive language that you and your kids could have fun re-framing.

Change your reactive language of “I can’t” into more proactive language of ” There must be a way I can do this”

From “There’s nothing I can do” into “I wonder what the other options are?”

From “I have to…” into “I choose to…”

And away from “I ought to…” into “I want to….”

And finally from “That’s just the way I am” into “I know I can do better than this.”

Proactive people who are not easily offended, they take responsibility for their choices, they think before they act and they bounce back when something bad happens and they always find a way to make things happen. They focus on things they can do about something and they don’t worry about the things they can’t control.

So you can see how important it is to develop this “can-do” approach and attitude to life in your teenager. While you can’t control everything that happens to them you can teach them how to control how they respond to what happens to them.

There are things you can’t change - like the weather, the color of your hair or who wins the FA Cup but helping your teenager to focus on what they can control - like their temper, the words they use and their attitude to their circumstances can help your teen experience more balance, more inner peace and a sense of being more in control of their lives.

Shopping for teen bedding, teen decorating ideas, decorating ideas, teen bedroom theme, teen bedroom ideas, teenage bedroom theme

No matter what it is that you are buying for a teenager it generally is a roll of the dice as to whether or no they are going to be happy with your final purchase. You can consult them first but that can sometimes be misleading, so in the end it is you that must make the final decision. To start with, teenagers in general prefer a medium sized bed and this is something to bear in mind when you are buying a mattress.

Another thing to consider is that you will want the bed to be as easy to make as possible. This is why a nice comforter works great on the top of the bedding. It functions as both the blanket and the bed cover. Having several blankets and a bed cover as well as multiple pillows may look nice when it is made up correctly but many teenagers just aren’t going to make this a top priority of theirs.

Nice solid colors are a good bet for your teenager and you will want them to match the color of their room. If you are buying bedding for a boy you will want to make sure that is it is a masculine color. Black is a great color that many young men like. For teen girls you will want to make sure that you have a soft feminine color that also matches the color of their room.

If at all possible you can avoid any trouble by taking them along when you go on the shopping trip. If you do get them to go you have to go right to your destination and get the deal done or they can become bored and surly. Or you can do your shopping online and have them look at the pictures on the computer.

Teen Bedroom Decorating Ideas

When we found out we were having twins, our teenage daughter volunteered to move into a smaller bedroom so that the twins could have the bigger one. It was definitely time to come up with a new bedroom theme!

The walls were already white, so that part was easy. Having the walls white also makes the room look as large as possible. As a school project, our daughter repainted an old cabinet that was mine when I was growing up.

She sanded it, painted it white, and then decoupaged onto the cabinet black and white photos (mostly scenery she liked) from magazines and photos that she had printed from the Internet.

She found some black and white posters for the walls that she liked. Because of the limited space we decided to put up shelves on the walls to replace her bookcase. My husband spray painted the metal runners that the shelves hang on black, and the shelves are white. It looks really nice and frees up a lot of room.

We also found an inexpensive black TV stand at Wal-Mart to put her stereo on since she had to give up the dresser it had been on before. We had an old bulletin board that needed a facelift. We taped around the inside of the board and then spray painted the frame of the board black. We then used a paintbrush to paint the cork white.