Tonight’s presentation of “How to Relate to Your Teen,” at 6:30-8:00 p.m. will in the gym of Hazelwood Middle School as a part of their parent education series.
“That’s one of the major questions parents ask—’how do I deal with my child who is not the same person that I knew last year in elementary school?'” said Darrell Strong, principal of Hazelwood Middle School.
“Parents need assistance in understanding the complexity of the changes that their child is going through—physical, social, emotional, psychological and biological,” Strong said. “We will give them some tips on dealing with those changes as they occur so they can be proactive and help them as they go through adolescence.”
The guest speaker is Derrick Robinson, director of program development for Touchdown Enterprises, Inc.
“Instead of teaching people to be adults and teenagers, we should teach them how to be great persons from birth,” Robinson said. “One of the things we are trying to do is to help parents better realize what we actually say to our teens.”
Robinson says the words and phrases that adults use to explain away teen behavior is part of what leads to destructive actions—what he calls “adult-isms”.
He said adults should explain to children why they should or should not take a particular action as well as explain the consequences.
“We want them to leave with the idea of ‘what am I going to work on with my child today?'” Robinson said. “We want them to look for an outcome from the child as well as from themselves, discarding the old thoughts and adult-isms and making sure everyone understands how to be a great human being.”
Although the presentation is taking place at Hazelwood Middle, it is open to any parent who would be interested in learning ways to better connect with their children.