Page 36 - Waterfall City September Issue 2023

Waterfall City Today’s Child

last for eight hours. Teens tend to from when we grew up,
be on their phones until late in the and our children are being
night. If your teen is struggling with exposed to much more at
bedtime, take their cellphone to a much younger age. The
another room at a certain time or add navigation of knowledge is
downtime to your teen’s phone. App hard because our children
limits are also useful to avoid endless are receiving information
scrolling. from multiple and often
• Screen time: I cannot stress this one conflicting sources. They
enough. Stay on top of screen time. rely on us for the truth.
Teens who spend too much time
on their phones or tablet screens Sometimes a teen may
become moody and edgy. Open- know more than they
ended limits lead to problems, so set are letting on, but their
limits where possible. Help your child information is often
to use their time onscreen wisely incorrect. They may be
and concisely. Help them to regard put in a position that
the content they read online with a forces them to make adult
critical eye and not to accept what’s decisions sooner than they
written on social platforms as the should even without the
truth – often, it isn’t. Also, take the know-how. Make it easy for
opportunity to teach your teen to use them to want to turn to you parent requires you to be patient,
their online time purposefully. for clarity and support. understanding, calm and honest with
• Build your relationship with them: your teen, so they can learn from their
Do this by focusing on anything but Parenting isn’t easy. You raise your child mistakes.
a problem. Watch a movie together, in the hope that they will be functional
bake, do a puzzle – build your members of society, but there are no Despite your best attempts to protect
connection around benign things. guarantees. Expect your teen to make your child, you can’t shield them from
mistakes and know that these mistakes everything. Rather, have the goal of
5. Be honest and caring do not reflect on poor parenting – raising a resilient individual, so they
Honesty and encouragement are very because poor (or good) parenting is can bounce back after a problem, big
important when parenting a child. reflected in how the parent responds or small, and grow into well-rounded
The world is a very different place at the time of the mistake. Being a adults.

34 Waterfall City Issue 9 2023