The Ways to Spend Time with your Teenage Daughter

If you have more than one daughter, then make sure they each get their special time alone with you.

I have found that these activities are also great for bonding with teens you want to reach out to and build relationships with, like a step-daughter.

1. Take your dog on a walk together.

2. Cook dinner together, letting her choose the menu and help shop for the ingredients.

3. Pick her up from school and take her out to lunch, even if she misses part of a class.

4. Drive to the closest big city for the night, stay in a hotel, and spend all the next day shopping and sightseeing, taking time to stop for lunch at an outdoor cafe.

5. Read the same book together and talk about it when you're done reading it.

6. Do a scriptural book study together.

7. Get up early on a Saturday morning, go get coffee, and spend the morning going to yard sales or looking through thrift shops or dollar stores.

8. Make cookies together to give to a friend.

9. Make holiday gifts together to give to friends and family.

10. Go with your daughter to the concert of her choice.

11. Buy her the materials to start a high school scrapbook. Work on your scrapbooks while she works on hers.

12. Join a local fitness club and work out together. My daughter and I joined a local women's gym that is very inexpensive ($40/month for both of us). We get up at 5:00 a.m. three days a week to go exercise before she goes to school and I go to work.

13. Go to the local video store and rent a couple of "chick flicks" to enjoy together in the comfort of your home. Kick the men out of the house and lounge around in your pajamas.