This article addresses teen’s development and teen dating relationships.

1. This article addresses teen’s development and teen dating
relationships.
Teen Dating Advice: My Teen is a Mess!
Teenage dating advice and guiding teens can feel like perpetual construction on the
freeways. Do you feel like the orange barrels dented and thumped from months of
standing guard as the watchmen for the never-ending asphalt trucks and busy
workers that are trying to “complete” the project? Is there ever any rest? Nope.
Freeways are high maintenance – so is parenting some teens. But the best teen
dating advice is to remember that they are still “under construction” for a
reason…and a season. Sometimes, it can go on for months, even years at a time!
Teens that look all grown up yet still require some final touches - “I’m really tired. I
don’t think I feel like going out. I just need to hang out at home.” Again? Still?
I can’t rush the freeway completion any more than I can rush the full development
of a teenager’s brain. It can be a real challenge as a parent to monitor the ongoing
progress of their precious teen. It is even more challenging to experience your own
teen dating someone who is…let’s say, “behind schedule.” Every few feet there is
another blatant warning that you will encounter a slowdown or bottleneck in the
flow of their relationship. “I just can’t stand my sister. She makes me crazy! That’s
why I’m in a bad mood!” Really, for a month now? What’s up with that? You find
your teen exhausted from a constant state of “alert” and from white-knuckling for
hours on end. In an honest moment, you hope they realize it’s just not the way the
trip was supposed to be. And yet they drive on not knowing where or when it will
end.

2. Teen Dating Advice: Road Closed – Will Reopen in the Spring of Who Knows
When?
Whether you’re teen has high maintenance friends or seems to attract high
maintenance dates, either way, there is a point at which you might want to
encourage them to look at why they keep choosing to go down that road. There
must be some attraction. Is it the drama of driving over potholes at 75 miles and
hour to see how the long they can take it before they fall apart? Or maybe your teen
just isn’t paying attention to the signs that repeatedly point to the high level of
repair needed.
Here’s the good news and some teen dating help - There is always another way.
Always Teens do not have to go down that road. Sure, that was the plan but they
don’t have to wait until they have a close encounter with rebar and wire mesh
protruding from broken concrete before taking the next exit. Teens can pick another
route. Really, give them some teenage dating advice and teach them how to put on
their turn signal and give it a try – they might actually discover that they like the
smoother, quieter option.
Thoughts on this teen dating advice?
Mama j
In the book Dater’s Ed, Lisa Jander, the Teen-Whisperer, helps parents teach their
teenagers to learn how to “date defensively, navigate safely and steer clear of
unhealthy relationships.”
www.DatersEd.com