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It’s Summer: Help Your Teen Do Something Dangerous

June 13, 2011 by Dr. David Hooton Leave a Comment

(excerpt from If Your Teen Could Talk, by Dr. David Hooton)

Brain Frame #4: Encourage Risky Behaviors

Or rather, help your teen become a safe risk taker. We’re talking about helping teens engage in risky behaviors that have predictable, non-permanent consequences. You have to allow them the opportunity to excite their amygdala, the driver for their emotional brain. You want to look for opportunities that will fulfill a teen’s need for real excitement but that don’t end in death, permanent disability, or your premature grandparenthood.

 

Some examples of risky activities with controllable outcomes include skiing, spelunking, or even same-age double-dating with friends.

Doing so will help your teen avoid those risky, exciting, have-to-try-it activities that have irreversible consequences such as unwanted pregnancies, car accidents, and substance abuse. Show tolerance for the more minor risk-taking behaviors she’ll engage in from time to time that don’t have severe consequences, even if you wouldn’t do it yourself.

As for overprotective parents out there- you’ll find out sooner or later that a teen who does not learn how to take risks operates on auto-pilot and won’t know what to do when the auto-pilot isn’t available. You might even discover that you’ve become a co-sponsor for a thriving risk-based underground where the teen is taking ill-advised risks without your knowledge.

Here’s what you can do:
1. Make a list of “semi-dangerous” activities that are doable and might excite your teen.
2. Encourage your teen to do them, providing assistance- with little oversight- as needed.

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Filed Under: Tweens and Teens, Uncategorized

About Dr. David Hooton

Nationally recognized author of If Your Teen Could Talk, David Hooton, Ed. D., will help parents better understand their teens and tweens. Leading experts, celebrities, and parents alike hail Davids writings as a game-changer for understanding and building relationships with your teen or tween. Lu Hanessian, NBC co-anchor, says, David Hooton created a lens on adolescence that opens our hearts for teenagers by seeing the world through their eyes, sharing their voices and truth in a way that dismantles the cultural stereotypes of moody, sullen, angry youth. Brooke Burke gets to the point: get this book. Hell share with ModernMom his perspectives that bring insight to teen lifeand make your life easier. David graduated from Vanderbilt University and lives with his wife and three children in Chattanooga, TN, where he continues to write and coach parents.

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