Lean Into Your Teen

If you have a wide age range between your children, or a larger family with multiple kids at all ages, I think it’s best to try to cater to the older children in the family. We talked about this on the podcast earlier this week and coined the corny phrase, “lean into your teen!” Older children have a tendency to want to do their own thing, so the longer you can keep them engaged with your family, the better it is for everyone.

When you’re considering what special activities you want to do over summer or in the fall, where you may want to vacation, how to spend holidays, or just what to do this Friday night - start by thinking about what your oldest kids would enjoy first. I think you will be happy you did. Some things our family did, which our teenagers enjoyed and the younger kids could also find fun were:

• Saw the big Marvel blockbuster movies when they came out

• Took camping trips to local state parks

• Attended local high school football games

When my older kids were looking at different colleges, we went to college football games together. (Okay, we went to Auburn football games, but you train them up in the way they should go!) Make it fun for your teens moms! It pays off when they are excited to hang out with your family on the weekend instead of running off with their friends.