Ideas for Time With Your Teens

Spending time away - from home - with your teenager promotes strong relationships and open communication. Research-based sources validate the significance of your involvement in your teen’s day to day life. You can easily utilize “together” moments as opportunities to convey your values and expectations about sex, drugs and other risky behaviors. As you spend time with your kids, you can actually position yourself as the “safe” person for advice and ongoing support.

Kansas City offers countless opportunities for low-cost fun with your young person. Take advantage of the City’s resources to create “mindless” and almost effortless time to just enjoy one another. Many parents mistakenly wait until their teen is in crisis to develop close interpersonal relationships. It’s often too late at that point. Instead, spend small, but frequent, increments of time with your teen on a regular basis. They may act as though they don’t like it, but they will thank you for the memories later in life.

Here are some cost-free ideas to “hang out” with your teenager:

• Visit the lush, multi-colored Kauffman Memorial Gardens off of Rockhill for a peaceful mini-retreat.
• Take snacks to Shawnee Mission Park and gaze at the rippling water from the gazebo.
• Leisurely take in the greenery at Loose Park.
• Introduce your kids to the excitement of City Market on a Saturday morning – loads of fun and plenty of conversation starters!
• Read the same book or magazine article and walk the Country Club Plaza while discussing it.

As you can see, spending time with your teen doesn’t have to break the bank. Nor will it take hours and hours of time. In reality, frequency is more importance than duration. Recurrent chunks of bonding time demonstrate your commitment to your teen’s interest and them as a person. The end result will be a strong, trusting relationship that propels your teenager toward self-confidence and a sense of belonging. In fact, my teen gripes when I suggest we hang out. But just the other day he said he enjoys our time together. Go figure.

Any other ideas of how we can enjoy our teens?

Useful Links:

Things to do with your teen

Kauffman Memorial Garden

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