Hurting Our Teenagers’ Feelings

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“Watch what you say about the mistakes that I’ve made, because you sometimes hurt my feelings.”

That’s what Kerri, a teenager from Tennessee shared with us in the brand new episode we just posted on our new YouTube series for parents called R U Listening. Most of you have already been to our R U Listening YouTube page and/or Facebook page. In short, R U Listening is a place where parents can hear the felt needs of kids today and be encouraged with how to respond appropriately.

In this new episode where Kerri shared her heart, my friend, author/speaker, David R. Smith responded with some really practical feedback. Here’s just a snippet:

Kids are going to make mistakes.

Somebody, somewhere, just said, “duh.” But hear me out. If we truly believe that to be the understatement of the century, then why don’t we as parents proactively fashion some tactful ways of handling the situations that are coming down the pipe? You see, if we do that, we don’t have to shoot from the hip. We don’t have to speak on the fly…

David goes on to offer some advice to prevent hurting our kids’ feelings during those tough moments when our kids mess up.

I encourage you to check out the entire 3 minute video here.