“My teen hangs out with the wrong crowd.”

July 27, 2011 Dear Mama Bear No Comments

From the mailbag:

"Dear MamaBear,

My 16 year old son is hanging out with a bunch of jerks who don't care about school, don't care about success, don't really care about anything that requires time and effort.

Unfortunately, my son is hanging out with them. I tried to forbid him to see them but he snuck out anyways.

Help!

Hopeless in Detroit"

Dear HiD,

Now *that* is one tough situation…and you're probably not going to like my idea.

MamaBear tends to be a wee bit insane when it comes to walking the path of what's right and what's wrong. So she tends to bring out the big guns there asap.

If your son is dabbling with turning to the Dark Side, you must approach this with a two-part method.

Part 1 – Open communications any way possible.

Is your son still willing to talk with you? If so, you're ahead of the game! But during your first conversation, *listen* more than you *talk*.

Try to get at what his friends offer him that satisfies his soul.

The art of talking so someone will listen can be quite difficult if you're not used to it. Be sure to read:

Now, if your teen is *not* open to talking with you, it will be 'way more difficult!

You can write him a note and leave it on his pillow. Encourage him to write something back.
You can start a free WordPress blog over at http://www.wordpress.com and write *to* him every day. The lack of actual confrontation might encourage him to talk sometime in the future.

While trying to reach your teen this way, do part 2: