Tweens and Communication Recap

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Last week The Motherhood hosted a class on Tweens and Communication thanks to Unilever and it turned out amazing.  If you missed the live online class you can read everything you missed on The Motherhood or just the summary of Tweens and Communication.  Several amazing women joined us to chit chat about raising tweens/teens, how to get them to open up about life and school without prying and how to comfort them as a mother without crossing the boundaries of being too much of a friend and not a parental.  Everyone shared advice and experiences while best-selling author and parenting expert, Rosalind Wiseman lead us in the right direction.

During the live chat they gave away a nice gift bag filled with goodies.  Two of Rosalind Wiseman’s books and some Unilever products that are perfect for building self confidence in teens by helping stay dry and fresh.

Unilever has also provided me with the opportunity to give one Vera Bradley filled tote bag away to a lucky reader.

How to Enter:

Leave a comment sharing one tip on how you encourage positive communication with your tween/teen. {ex: during dinner time have everyone share favorite part of the day at the dinner table}

Additional Entries: (one entry per comment)

  • Tweet the below tweet and leave permalink in the comments

Enter the #giveaway hosted by @MommaDJane to #win a Vera Bradley tote bag filled with goodies http://ow.ly/6U2VU #DontFretTheSweat

*Giveaway is open to all US Residents 18+ Entries will be accepted until Tuesday, October 18th at midnight CST. Any and all comments after that time will not be counted towards giveaway entries. Reader must leave a method of contact within comment and must respond within 48 hours of contact, otherwise a new winner will be chosen. Random.org will be used to select a random winner from comments on this post.

Full Disclosure: I did receive a complimentary Vera Bradley tote bag filled with the same goodies I’m offering as a giveaway.  All opinions are 100% mine.

Positive communication with your tween/teen is extremely important.  I’d love for you to share this post with others that you feel the live talk may benefit. Just a simple click of like or share on Facebook would be awesome!  You can also follow the initiative by Unilever on Facebook for their Don’t Fret The Sweat campaign.


Congrats, Tshanina


45 Comments

  1. i usually start out with complimenting my niece on something she is wearing or recently did that i heard about then she warms up to me and is usually more open to chit chat
    nannypanpan at gmail.com

  3. I love to have my sister’s grand-daughters come over and we work on a craft. One time I taught them how to make a basket.

  6. I find that a good time for talking is when we are alone in the car. I usually ask “how was your day” or “what’s new at school and with your friends” and it gets the conversation started.
    Thanks!

  8. i keep good communication with family meals and being involved in his interests

    debbie jackson
    djackson1958 at hotmail dot com

    ************

  13. I try to avoid any questions that could be answered with a no or yes. We open the conversations by asking what they did today, or what their dreams are for the future.We stay interested in the kids activities, I noticed kids that have parents involved in their activities are more open to talking when they have a problem.

  17. I encourage communication by not asking too many questions and eventually they like to share what happened in their day.

  21. I encourage positive communication by listening well and trying to understand things from their perspective.

  28. I don’t have any tween/teens yet, but I work with our youth at church. One of the things we do to encourage chats is to be sure to offer plenty of one on one time. It doesn’t sound like much, but I am amazed at the girls who say they rarely if ever get one on one with their mom’s out of the house. Just a quick trip to the thrift store or to the coffee shop. Window shopping. Anything!

  29. I do not have a tween yet but right now my daughter loves to help me prepare dinner & that’s when we usually talk about her day. I hope to keep both of those traditions going when she is a tween & that by starting out at such a young age she will never have an issue with coming to me.

  30. I am a single mom of 2 boys (13 & 9) therefore like many other women out there all the parenting (good and bad) rests on my shoulders. Like many of the other women posted I don’t want to ask my boys a question that has a simple yes or no answer. I want to encourage them to be open and honest with me about all aspects of their day, so I ask them questions like “What did you do in class today?” or “What did you get on your math test”. My children have known from a very early age that not only am I their mother but I am their friend as well and if they have an issue/problem they can always come to me, but that my primary obligation to them is as their mother.

  33. I used to work with troubled kids and I always played games with them to get them to open up… uno, monopoly, etc. My nieces and nephew come to me because they know that as long as they aren’t hurting themselves or anyone else I’ll keep their secrets.

  37. We always discuss our days at the dinner table. I’m fairly fanatical about having a sit-down meal where we can talk. But I also try to crave out 5 minutes (usually in the car on the way to an activity) where I can just let my tween and my teen tell me about whatever they want. My daughter (11) is easier to get talking, but I have to wait until afternoon to get my son (13) to share anything — he’s just not vocal before school.

  38. A captive audience with no distractions is best for us so I always ask how school was and ask them to tell me how things went not just in class but also during recess or lunch time.

  39. I like to ask them to talk about something wonderful a friend/family member did that day. It encourages them to focus on the awesome in everyone… Including themselves

  40. Although I’m not a parent myself, I work with the students at my church. Teenagers love authentic people. If they know you are going to be open and honest with them, they will, in turn, be open and honest with you.

  42. I have a 13 yr old girl and I ask her to take walks with me and we talk about friends,school ,etc

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