About Dating and Relationship: Can you still remember the moment when you started to fell in love? It was during your teenage where you feel so excited about dating someone and your hormones cannot contain it.
Your first love and relationship made your heart beats so fast. You feel excited every time you are with your partner. For sure, you still cherish those moment up until today because it is an important part of your life.
Time really flies right? Your adorable little child grew up so fast and now they are teens. They are now in high school and exploring life on their own.
Your teenagers now have social life with his/her friends, classmates, and relatives. And, in just a matter of years, they may be entering a relationship.
Just like what happened during your time, your teenager will experience it soon. They will fall in love with someone and try to date each other.
They will be in a relationship and it is something that is normal.
But there are things that your teenager must be aware of before being in a relationship.
You must have talk with your teenager before they started to date someone and be in a relationship.
Talking with them about dating is very important to avoid any problems at some point in the future. But how can you talk to your teens about dating and relationship? And what are the topics that you must discuss for them?
In this blog, I will help you to find some ways to talk with your teenager about dating and relationship.
Topic
- Why do you need to talk about dating and relationship?
- 15 Important points to discuss with your teenager about dating and relationship?
- 5 ways to talk to your teenager about dating and relationship?
- 5 Dating risks you should make your teen aware of
- 4 Dating Violence your Teen should Know about
- 5 Safety dating practice to follow
- Conclusion
Why do you need to talk about dating and relationship talk with your teen?
Dating and relationship is a normal occurrence for a teenager’s life. Anyone will experience it at some point in their life. That is why, it is very important to talk about this thing to your teenager because it is an event that for sure they will encounter.
As a parent, it is a way for you to prepare them and make them ready. Dating and relationship is a serious matter especially for teenagers because with just one wrong move from your teenager there is a chance to get really serious consequences.
Poor education about dating and relationship of a teen can cause teenage pregnancy which can really affect the life of a teenager. It will cause them to deal with a lot of pressure and things that a normal teenager does not need to deal with.
Talking about dating and relationship to your teenager is important because, you can educate them about the things that they should and should not do. You are making them aware about dating and relationship and you are opening their mind for possibilities.
15 Important points to discuss with your teenager about dating and relationship?
So, before having a conversation with your teenager about dating and relationship, it is important to understand the essential topics that you must discuss with your teenager.
Prepare yourself about important topics that you want to talk about. In this way, you have can have a clear objective in mind.
I have outlined few things (I tried to limit it to 15 points) that I believe and have told my kids when they were teenagers.
- Love is to be enjoyed but it should not be blind.
- Your happiness does not depend only on you holding a girl/guy in your arms.
- Genuine relationships do not demand you to change. It celebrates your uniqueness. And finds solutions to handle your irritants.
- Love with your heart and brain. Watch how the other person is behaving with people of less privileges than them. Are they taking their responsibilities seriously? (At teenage it is mostly schoolwork and school activities)
- Do not get into a relationship expecting to become a knight in shining armor, most of the time the damsel in distress tend to stay forever in distress. Be more careful if they are energy vampires.
- Be in a relationship that feels good for both of you. Not one that feels good in selfies and Instagram.
- Do things to get likes from your partner. Not from the world of social media.
- A good relationship gives your wings. Not chains you to the ground. Be clingy and needy 24/7.
- A good relationship will encourage you to be a better person. It will give you freedom to have healthy amount of time for yourself, your family, and your friends.
- Be yourself in the relationship. And give it time before taking steps further and deeper into the relationship. Let the relationship weather time and seasons. Different situations bring out different dimensions of the person.
- If there are red flags waving in my kid’s heads. Take notice do not ignore. These flags tend to show up time and again in the long run.
- If most your friends or close ones are raising an alert on your new love interest. Pause and take notice.
- It is ok to break up if the relationship is not that of mutual respect.
- Remember the person you are dating is also a human and has their own feeling and pride. Do not take it for granted and lead the relationship if you are not fully vested into it.
- Teen love is a beautiful phase and can give a lot of nice memories to cherish. But a relationship meant for the long all is far away from what is portrayed in the movies or novels or fairytales.
5 Dating Risk that you must make your teen aware of
You must let your teenager know on few of the basic dating risk they need to watch out for…
Unrealistic dating expectations:
With all the fairy tales talking about love at first sight and happily ever after. It is quite possible that are teenagers grew up thinking of dating and romance in a way which is far from reality.
And when these and when reality does not live up to their expectation it can lead to a Lord of station in your team.
So, talk to teen about your experiences, your dating goof ups, your idea of dating vs reality (The good bad and ugly).
Make sure that you set realistic expectations to your teen.
So, it helps when you have already taught your teen how to face challenges in life. When your teen has their bubble burst on what they expected a relationship to be to what reality is. Your teen will face a crisis.
And the life skill that you have taught to face challenges with the right attitude and overcome it will come handy at this time
If you like to know more read article on face challengers
Dating or indulging in sex before being ready
While for a parent your child is always too young to date or have sex. And it is understandably so. I feel the same about all my children even though the elder one is going to touch 20 years of age.
However not all kids mature in the same pace. Some children who are much more protected at home with less exposure to the world can still be immature when it comes to the ways of the world.
So, they are much more prone to dating risk than one that is matured to face dating relationship challenges.
So, intervene where you should in case you feel your teenager is vulnerable and not yet ready to handle this.
Helps if you have built an emotional connection with your teenager. So that your teenager is much more receptive to listen to you when you pull in the breaks.
If you like to know how to bond with your teenager better do read article emotionally connection.
Dating partners beyond your League
It is usually the case that when a teenager starts dating their partners are usually who are around their age. Usually people that they have met in their school or hobby classes.
However, there are times when teenagers bump into someone beyond their League. It can be someone much older to them, who are wiser in the ways of the world than them, or someone who is in a relationship or married.
While I am not saying that all these relationships are bad. But at the same time, it is not as innocent as dating someone who is around your age and has similar maturity levels.
It is a good chance that such partner is working and have more access to money at their disposal than your teenager. And your teenager can get enticed by this newfound attention that they are getting from an adult.
Parent educate your child to be weary of such relationships. In many cases it can be to only indulge in sexual pleasures with a minor than anything else emotional or long term.
Getting entangles in an unhealthy relationship
Teach your teen about healthy and unhealthy relationships. Teach them how to spot the difference between them.
- Give them confidence that they can walk out of an unhealthy relationship any time.
- No one is forcing them to stay in a relationship.
- No one can force them to stay in a relationship that they do not want to stay in.
- No matter how much it hurts it is always better to walk out of a healthy relationship then to proceed further into it.
Tell them that your love and support is always there, and it will be unconditional and non-judgmental. This will give them the courage that they need walk out of such a relationship.
Help your teen build self-confidence so that there able to tackle situations like these. If you like to know more about how to build self confidence in teenagers do read article self-confidence.
Peer pressure
One of the serious menaces that hits our children these days. Teenagers can get in to peer pressures and would want to get into the scene of dating and relationship just because all their friends are doing this.
It can also be because their peers are also encouraging them or pushing them to have a partner even if your teenager is not ready for it.
Sometimes teenagers who are not falling within the norms of the peers are also ridiculed or isolated. So, just to get back into the social circles your teenager can post themselves to date and take risks even when their heart is not into this.
Teach your teenager how to face peer pressures and how to overcome them. Our article on peer pressure can give you some guidance on this matter.
4 Dating Violence your Teen should Know about
Do tell your teen that almost 8% of the relationship has violence in it. And 1 of 3 people have reported to be emotionally abused by the person there that dating.
Drill it down to your teen that any type of violence is not acceptable. ANY TYPE mild or severe should be a red flag for your teen.
Your teen needs to be made aware of these violence’s.
Explain to them the following
Physical violence:
Physical violence is when someone physically hurts or attempts to physically hurt your teenager.
Emotional violence:
Emotional violence is when someone is emotionally hurting your teenager.
This can be through blackmail, or a controlling behaviour or putting your teenager self-esteem or self-worth down.
There are times when the partner your teenager is dating might try to isolate your teenager from other friends’ family. This also constitutes to emotional violence.
Sexual violence:
Is something when teenager’s partner is requesting for sexual favours even when your teenager is refusing or uncomfortable to indulge in it.
Sexual violence is anything sexual in nature. Be it forcing them to watch porn, to kissing, grouping or full on sex. Any unwanted advances of sexual in nature is part of sexual violence.
Cyberbullying and Stalking
Cyberstalking were emails are tacked, or your kid undergoes harassment in social media and threats that make your teen feel violated all constitute to stalking and dating violence.
Other types of risks are stalking where your teenager is repeatedly be made advances and intimidated to the extent that they feel fear and unsafe.
5 ways you talk to your teenager about dating and relationship?
Now here comes the question how can you talk to your teenager about dating and relationship? Do not worry here are the ways to have a natural conversation about dating and relationship with your teenager.
Ask them about their social life
The best way to start a conversation about dating and relationship of your teenager is by asking them questions about their social life.
Ask them naturally about their social life or circle of friends and wait for your teenager to speak up. For sure, your teenagers want to share something about their social life they are just waiting to be asked.
If the conversation goes right, then gradually lead the topic into dating.
Ask them if they already like someone or someone is into them. In this way, your teenager can have the opportunity to open this topic because most of the teenagers were shy to share this with their parents. They are embarrassed to share it with parents because it is something new to them.
And because of this shyness teenager are unable to talk dating to their parents.
So, be open minded with your teenager and be the one to initiate this kind of conversation. This will also give you the opportunity to get an understanding with their social life.
Also, the initial stages of dating can give your teenager who is inexperienced al lot of anxiety. So as parents we can be supportive to them and put their nerves to rest.
To know more about teenage anxiety and issues read our article anxiety.
Give them advice
The role of a parent in the relationship of a teenager is to be the source of knowledge.
Dating and relationship is something new to teenager’s life, they do not know anything about it. Your teenager just feels that raging hormones in their body and they just follow their fast heart beats.
Teenagers are innocent and completely clueless about dating and relationship.
So, have some time to give advice to your teenager about relationship and dating. You are the only person that can provide them genuine information and advice. Help them to be smart about a relationship.
If, your teenager is in a relationship ask them from time to time about their relationship and if they have problems or issues that need to be resolve.
Give them useful and appropriate advice for their well-being. Give them solution to resolve the feelings.
This is also important on preparing your teenager to be emotionally capable of handling much more difficult situation in life.
By now you should have had the needed sex education talk with your teenager. If have not had and like to know how to go about it. Do read our article sex education.
Discuss their limits as a teenager
One important thing to talk about dating and relationship to your teenager is to discuss important limitation for them. As a teenager they should be under your monitor even some parts of their relationship.
This is important to make sure that they are safe from danger and bad consequences. Talk to your teenager about their boundaries because it is important for them to know it.
Give them limits such as off action curfews and alcohol prohibition. Your teenager must realize that though they can be in a relationship there are still actions that is prohibited. Explain the reason clearly to them, why you are setting boundaries.
Genuinely tell them that it is for their safety and you want them to have a good future. Tell them that relationship is part of being a teenager and it is something normal, but there are restrictions to ensure their well-being.
This is a good way to talk about with your teenager dating life because this will give realization to your teenager.
If you are wondering how to get your point across to your teenager without causing any misunderstanding or anger episodes. Our article gets your point across can point to the right direction.
Always respect them
No matter the situation, the best way to start a conversation is by respecting each other. If, you want to talk with your teenager about dating and relationship, put in mind that you must respect them as a teenager.
Although they are teens it is still important to show respect about their opinion and privacy.
This way you will get the trust of your teenager. They will have the courage to talk to you about dating and relationship because they know that you are respecting them. They know that you will listen no matter what and not be judgmental with them.
Start and Continue / Start, pause, and restart.
When you are talking to your teenager. Ensure that it is in the right environment where there is minimum disturbance. Make sure that you and your teenager are in a good receptive mood and not irritated or tired or busy.
Ease into the topic slowly and watch for your teenager’s reaction. Be prepared with the outline of what you are going to talk.
Use a clam tone and present your point of view. Make your teen summaries and recap for you. Keep a close watch on how the conversation is going.
If for some reason you feel that the conversation is getting derailed and you or your teen is not in the right frame of mind. Do pause the topic and do not push it further.
Do let your teen know that you would like to pick it up some other time. Choose the right time and reopen the topic and proceed further.
It is normal for teenagers to have mood swings. And when you touch upon sensitive topics, they can go a bit here and there. If you have a sensitive teen. Read our article on mood swings to know more about how to deal with this.
Word of caution to parents
Most of the time teen dating and relationship is about finding who would not fit with them rather than finding the right partner.
Dating is social activity in which the teenager develops his social skills and dating skills.
You need to teach your teenager about relationships and how to differentiate Between a healthy and unhealthy relationship.
If you need more guidance do read article 6 drug and alcohol.
There are also some things that you need to watch out for. It is mainly about teen hard break heartbreak.
As a parent you need to be aware of the relationship that your teenager is getting into. And the health of the relationship specially it is very important to know when the relationship breaks.
Boys and girls react very differently heartbreak. In general girls tend to talk about it. Cry went out and share their grief.
However, boys tend to be reserved and keep things to themselves and try to work things out. It is not because they hurt less. It is because they are wired that way.
Wat we have outlined above are broad ways in which boys and girls react to a heartbreak. As parents you need to be vigilant and careful and ensure that your teen does not slip into depression.
Depression when left unchecked can also lead into suicidal thoughts and your teen can exhibit suicidal tendencies.
To know more about these topics, you can read article depression and suicide respectively
10 Safe dating practice to follow
Ensure that you speak of these topics well in advance before your teen brings in a date and then you must start negotiation on these topics.
It is easier to get your teen buy in when you are speaking to them without any pressures of an upcoming date.
So, help your teen to be aware of your expectations and what they need to adhere to. So that they will be better equipped to upfront discuss these with their partner and not have a loss of face later.
Mention to your teen that even if they reach the legal age where they can date. You will still require them to practice these safety rules for their benefit.
Rules w.r.t the person and Venue
- Your teen needs to let you know in advance if they are planning to go out on a date. So that you have a better understanding from your teen on who it is and all about the person.
- Have clear ground rules when it comes to dating someone they online. I suggest you make sure that the first date that they have is with your family and in your presence rather than somewhere else.
- If your teen is planning to go on a date to their partner’s house and not a commonplace. Insist that you will have a conversation with your teenagers’ partners’ parents well in advance to ensure that they are also what into this idea.
- Also insist that you will have dropped them there and pick them up from there. Also so gather information on who else will be available in their house and exercise discretion.
- They need to let you know where they are planning to go, what is the schedule and at what time they are expected to return home.
- They are expected to adhere to what they have committed to you. Or make a call to you and inform you on change of plans while they are on date.
- Unless your teen has built in credibility with you. Insist that you would like to chauffeur them to and fro. from their date.
Other safe dating rules…
- Safety rules such as drinking and driving, having alcohol during dates, sex, needs to be discussed up front with you and you need to make your expectation clear to them.
- Establish cell phone rules with your teenager and educate them of the dangers of technology. Do tell them that they are not supposed to take any photos or sex text or indulge in any such activity which would embarrass them should they come to light and made public.
- Educate your teen about date drugs, alcohol, and sex. So that your teen is aware of these relationships and the dangers they pose while dating.
Do read our article sex, drugs, and alcohol to know more about these topics and how you need to talk to your teen on them.
Conclusion
Dating and relationship is something any teenager will have to experience. This is something new to them, so they need guidance. You as their parent, is their only source of knowledge and guidance.
Take the opportunity to discuss this topic with teenager. Have some natural conversation with them to explain the concept of relationship. Be there to give them advice and learning about it.
Help them to resolve conflict within their relationship. Most importantly, set boundaries or limitation so that you can make sure that your teenager knows what they are doing.
Prevention is always better than cure. The more you are open and talk about it and set clear rules the better equipped your teenager will be to successfully cross this phase of their life and have a fulfilling long-term relationship…
God Bless!!
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