About Parenting Teens: Texting, While Driving and Inappropriate Texts

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Parenting Teens Parenting Teens Teens Today High School Troubled Teens From Denise Witmer, your Guide to Parenting Teens 13-YO Son Sends Inappropriate Texts, What Would You Do? Mom on our parenting teens forum: "My 13yo son sent a text to a 13yo female friend of his inviting her to go swimming with our Youth Group and asking her to wear her bikini because seeing her in it 'gives him a boner'. I am so angry i could spit nails! We have taken away his cell phone, and had a discussion with him about how inappropriate this is, but he does not seem to understand. How can we get him to understand without putting him in a position to rebel or go underground with his behavior?" Denise's thoughts: I can understand your frustration, we all want our teens to act in an appropriate manner. He made a mistake talking to his friend in a way that was crass and not called for - whether is was the truth or not. Since you son is a 13-year-old teen, won't be his last mistake and it won't be the last time you are shocked by it. Believe it or not, this is a teachable moment as teens do not know how to date. Take your emotions out of the equation by taking a deep breath and knowing that you can help him fix it so that he doesn't make that mistake again. Let him know that at his age it is not appropriate to speak to anyone like that whether it is on the cell phone or in person. Your family has this value. Tell him that if he likes this girl, there are much better ways to get her attention than being vulgar. Then leave it to him to understand or not - he will. Worrying about that will only drive you insane throughout the next 5 years ;) Asking our parenting teens community: Have your caught your teen being crass? Have you had to take the cell phone away for inappropriate behavior? Please share your thoughts, emotions and advice in the comments area. Follow me on Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook. Study Shows Percent of Teens Texting While Driving Is Up If your teen is a Glee fan, you breathed a sigh of relief to see Quinn back after her car accident. Many fans thought she was dead - and rightly so! It was a very disturbing scene and made me jump. If you haven't caught that episode, Fox is still running it here. She is back to school, but not without consequence as she is paralyzed from the waist down and is confined to a wheelchair. This is the type of natural consequences parents talk to their teens about all the time. There is some bad news about teens and texting while driving: our talking to our teens doesn't seem to be working. A phone survey by Harris Interactive for State Farm stated that 57% of teens with driver's licenses admit to texting while driving, while 67% of these teens who do text and drive reported having frequent conversations on the subject. And 82% of teens surveyed who never text and drive reported talking to their parents often about safety on the road. So, the problem isn't that most parents aren't talking to their teens, it's that our teens aren't listening. They don't think the message is important. Like Quinn in Glee, they don't think anything can happen to them. Which means it's time for parents to swap out some logical consequences for the natural ones. To help, I have written up a Parenting Contract: Teen Driving and Cell Phone Use to go with the Cell Phone Use parenting contract I had on the site previously - which does say no texting while driving as well. Suggested Reading: Teaching Teenagers to Drive Parenting Tips and Rules for When Your Teen Is Driving How To Delegate a Responsibility to Your Teen Asking our community of parents: Does your teen text while driving? What have you done in your home to help your teen realize the seriousness of texting while driving? Please share your thoughts, advice and experiences in the comments area. Follow me on Twitter. Become a fan on Facebook. New Ages and Stages Pages I've added some new pages to my Ages and Stages category that I hope will help parents find more information on their teens of a certain age: 13-Year-Old Teens 14-Year-Old Teens 15-Year-Old Teens 16-Year-Old Teens 17-Year-Old Teens 18-Year-Old Teens 6 Tips for Parenting Troubled Teens Being the parent of a teen with emotional or behavioral problems adds new challenges to the already difficult task of raising a child through the adolescent years. Teens become troubled for a number of reasons and when this happens parents are forced to learn new strategies for daily survival, while at the same time figuring out how to navigate solutions for helping their teen heal... read more: 6 Tips for Parenting Troubled Teens. More: Parenting Quiz: Is Your Teen 'At-Risk'? Programs for Troubled Teens Parenting Troubled Teens Articles See More About:  parenting troubled teens  parenting advice  teen rules and responsibilities Parenting of Adolescents Ads Boot Camp Teens Camp Troubled Teens Troubled Teens Camp Troubled Teens Troubled Teens Camps Featured Articles   More from About.com Financial Emergencies An unexpected change in your financial situation can be incredibly stressful. Here's how to cope. More> Retirement Planning Learn the top five things you need to do in order to start building a retirement nest egg. More> This newsletter is written by: Denise Witmer Parenting Teens Guide Email Me | My Blog | My Forum   Sign up for more free newsletters on your favorite topics You are receiving this newsletter because you subscribed to the About Parenting Teens newsletter. If you wish to change your email address or unsubscribe, please click here. 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