This article addresses teen’s development and teen dating relationships.

Teen Dating Advice: My Teen is a Mess!

Teenage dating advice and guiding teens can feel like perpetual construction on the freeways. Do you feel like the orange barrels dented and thumped from months of standing guard as the watchmen for the never-ending asphalt trucks and busy workers that are trying to “complete” the project? Is there ever any rest? Nope.

Freeways are high maintenance – so is parenting some teens. But the best teen dating advice is to remember that they are still “under construction” for a reason…and a season. Sometimes, it can go on for months, even years at a time! Teens that look all grown up yet still require some final touches – “I’m really tired. I don’t think I feel like going out. I just need to hang out at home.” Again? Still?

I can’t rush the freeway completion any more than I can rush the full development of a teenager’s brain. It can be a real challenge as a parent to monitor the ongoing progress of their precious teen. It is even more challenging to experience your own teen dating someone who is…let’s say, “behind schedule.” Every few feet there is another blatant warning that you will encounter a slowdown or bottleneck in the flow of their relationship. “I just can’t stand my sister. She makes me crazy! That’s why I’m in a bad mood!” Really, for a month now? What’s up with that? You find your teen exhausted from a constant state of “alert” and from white-knuckling for hours on end. In an honest moment, you hope they realize it’s just not the way the trip was supposed to be. And yet they drive on not knowing where or when it will end.

Teen Dating Advice: Road Closed – Will Reopen in the Spring of Who Knows When?

Whether you’re teen has high maintenance friends or seems to attract high maintenance dates, either way, there is a point at which you might want to encourage them to look at why they keep choosing to go down that road. There must be some attraction. Is it the drama of driving over potholes at 75 miles and hour to see how the long they can take it before they fall apart? Or maybe your teen just isn’t paying attention to the signs that repeatedly point to the high level of repair needed.

Here’s the good news and some teen dating help – There is always another way. Always Teens do not have to go down that road. Sure, that was the plan but they don’t have to wait until they have a close encounter with rebar and wire mesh protruding from broken concrete before taking the next exit. Teens can pick another route. Really, give them some teenage dating advice and teach them how to put on their turn signal and give it a try – they might actually discover that they like the smoother, quieter option.

Thoughts on this teen dating advice?

Mama j

In the book Dater’s Ed, Lisa Jander, the Teen-Whisperer, helps parents teach their teenagers to learn how to “date defensively, navigate safely and steer clear of unhealthy relationships.”

www.DatersEd.com