While most New Year’s resolutions are made to be broken, you and your teen might resolve, day by day, during the coming year, to improve your relationship with the following resolutions:
1. We will listen to each other. Each of us has a right to a point of view, a right to be heard, even when the other disagrees.
2. We’ll think twice before saying something critical, and ask ourselves, “Is this necessary?”, “Will this improve our communication?”, “Is it to educate, or to punish?”
3. We will reserve our confrontations for the important things — being more tolerant, just for today, of each other’s minor differences, habits, flaws and eccentricities.
4. We will put more emphasis on enjoying what we can share, instead of only focusing on our differences.
5. We will let each other know, warmly and often, that even when we disagree, even when we seem worlds apart, even when we’re feeling angry and frustrated with each other, the love we have for each other is constant and real.
It is this love that sustains us through our family growing pains, and the happy times in between.
An expert in the field of adolescent behavior, Ms. McCoy has authored eleven books on the subject including the best selling “The Teenage Body Book”. Additionally she has written hundreds of articles for major national magazines. Coordinator of the Clinical Ph.D. Program at California School of Professional Psychology and Staff Counselor at the Center for Individual and Family Counseling in North Hollywood, California.
