6 Ways to Read Your Teenager’s Body Language

6 Ways to Read Your Teen's Body Language

Six Body Language Signals Which Say Your Child or Teenager May Be Lying  To You

 

You notice that your teens’ behavior has changed, at first you attribute it to hormones and pubertal growing pains . But the more you try to communicate with them you feel that something is wrong.

Even though you have repeatedly asked if they were taking drugs and received a firm “No” your suspicions won’t go away. Or, you may even suspect that your teen is still hanging around with that bad influence classmate even though they swore they don’t see them. Or is there a gnawing voice inside you telling you that your teen may be having sex even though they loudly insist that they are not.

First and foremost, if you have any suspicions that your child or teen is lying to you, trust your instincts because you are usually correct.

Holding Teenagers Accountable for their Behavior

Do you enable your teenager's poor behavior?

Do you enable your teenager’s poor behavior?

A woman I know named Mary had a teen son with anxiety issues.  Things escalated with him and he began to refuse to go to school. Eventually, he was placed in an outpatient program through a psychiatric hospital and also attended group sessions with other anxious kids.  His life improved and he returned to school.  However, a few months later he began skipping school again. The woman decided to get some help for herself.  After learning some important things she began to realize that she had been contributing to her son’s anxiety issues. Mary was able to see that she had always seen her son as ‘fragile’ and treated him that way. She had ‘let him off the hook’ over and over again throughout his life, thinking he was incapable of being responsible, towing the line, learning from his mistakes. Her vision of him was a weak one, and it was very perceptible to him and others. Therefore, his vision of himself was a weak one, creating lots and lots of anxiety within his psyche.

Helping Your Teens Set SMART Goals for the New Year

Helping Your Teens Set SMART goals

How SMART Goals help determine what should be categorized as a goal.

I really don’t like the word “resolution” – and I never set any New Year’s Resolutions for myself. The way I see it, if there is something I need to change about myself, I’m not going to wait until January 1st to make that change … I’d better get on with it right away! If you realize you’re eating too much cake, or that cigarettes cause cancer, you should make those changes immediately.

New Year’s Resolutions just don’t seem to stick. The unfortunate truth is that it’s become completely normal and accepted to flake out on our New Year’s Resolutions – the gym is packed to the gills in January, a little less crowded in February, and then back to only the regulars in March.

However, I do see the value in setting goals. Goals have a different feel than resolutions do. Resolutions have a negative connotation, don’t they? New Year’s Resolutions usually mean that you need to stop doing something you shouldn’t be doing.