Essential Parental Advice You Must Know if You Care About Your Teen’s Future.

Essential Parental Advice You Must Know if You Care About Your Teen’s Future.

by GT Scholars

It is natural to care about your teen’s future as a parent or carer. Young people navigate through diverse stages of life, and especially during their teenage years, they tend to have many questions, worries and uncertainties about their future and other aspects of their lives. With the complexities of the world today, it’s easy for teens to get carried away by the many distractions and destructive activities happening! Hence, it is crucial for you as a parent to provide guidance and support to prevent your teen from being swayed by any negativity in the world.

From social media to school or neighbourhood friends, many things contend to get your teen’s attention and seek to influence them, whether positively or negatively. And each choice or decision that your child makes, especially during their teenage years, will have a direct impact on their future. For this reason, we are sharing with you 6 applicable pieces of parental advice that can help you to positively affect your teen’s future. By the time you are done reading this article, you will already be more empowered to take strategic actions that will have direct positive results in your child’s future.

1. Model What You Want Your Teen’s Future to Reflect

Leading by example is beyond a cliché! It’s the most impactful way to lead. It’s easier to influence your teen when you are modelling the instructions and advice you are giving them. Children tend to easily do what you do more than what you say! Generally, children are like mirrors; they reflect the environment around them. They have a higher probability of doing what they have been witnessing as they grow. Beyond the genetic traits you transfer to them as parents, they also mimic the language, gestures, habits, value systems and lifestyle of the adults around them. Therefore, as you decide to deliberately demonstrate healthy habits, respectful communication styles, good relationship management and other ethics, you will strongly prompt your child to follow suit.

Whether consciously or subconsciously, your teen will most likely copy how you do certain things. Research found that parental dietary habits, especially those of mothers, had a significant impact on their children’s choice of food. Mothers who have healthy eating habits tend to easily influence their children to follow the same eating pattern. Fathers also influence their children’s diet, especially their sons. Beyond dietary preferences, even your choice of hobbies and career path has a strong impact on your teens. Another study by Joblist showed that 65% of respondents currently work in the fields that their parents desired for them. Consequently, as you are aware, you hold such a highly influential position; use it to positively shape your teen’s future.

2. Establish Open Communication

Teenagers want someone they can talk to. And it will be lovely if they choose you! They are at a stage in their lives where they have many questions, they are trying to discover themselves and navigate through life challenges on different levels. You need to create an environment where your teen feels comfortable sharing their concerns and thoughts with you, knowing that you will offer your best support and guidance within your capacity. It can be distressing when your child becomes distant and silent toward you or decides to bottle up the concerns they might be having. They must have a person they express their vulnerabilities to, and if it’s the wrong person, their future might be at risk.

So, as you foster open communication, your teen will feel okay to involve you to help them journey through their pains, joys, cries and celebrations. This is also beneficial to you because you get to know your child in a deeper and closer way, and are able to offer advice when you see them on the verge of making a wrong decision. So, initiate deep conversations with your teen. Don’t be a stranger! Take them out for their favourite movie or restaurant. Have quality time with them, let them ask you questions and be present to answer them. By doing so, your teen will give you more access to be aware of the seasons they are going through, and you will know what to do to set your teen’s future on the right track.

3. Support Their Interests and Passions

Your teen has unique needs, aspirations, passions and interests. Your child is not you! So, it’s okay for them to sometimes make choices that are not similar to yours. So long as they are making choices which will not harm themselves or others, encourage them. Support their hobbies and interests, let them know you are present, and that they can count on you whenever they need. Avail yourself to offer advice, and ensure that they are safe while pursuing their aspirations. Do your best to be present during the key moments of their lives – for example, during championship games if they are playing sports, or if they are performing in a competition of their choice. Be their fan, be the nourishing force of their dreams and ambitions.

Additionally, to better support your teen’s future, you need to closely observe them to understand their needs, discover their skills and identify their passions and dreams. For instance, if your child is skilful in drawing, you can begin to motivate them and guide them to practise regularly. You can even enrol them in drawing courses of their age or get them a drawing mentor! As you do so, you will be building a master artist in the coming years. To know more about mentoring programmes and other award-winning programmes focusing on growth mindset and teens’ personal development, you can visit our website.

4. Encourage Education, Lifelong Learning and Personal Development

In almost every sector, the world has multiplied its evolving pace. That is why your teen needs to constantly develop themselves to stay relevant in their future. You need to emphasise education, lifelong learning and personal development, both in formal and informal ways, if you truly desire your teen’s future to be impactful and successful.

Beyond the formal education at school, encourage your teen to enrol in personal development programmes, extracurricular activities, tutoring and/or mentoring programmes, and encourage them to attend career fairs, business seminars and the like. The objective here is to equip their mindset to be able to cope with and deliver the expectation of the solid future that is before them. Do not leave your teen’s future to chance! Help them to shape their future for success by deliberately instilling a constant desire to grow mentally, financially, professionally and in other aspects of their life. 

At GT Scholars, we can assist you with that! We run insightful, award-winning programmes designed to help young people aged 11-18 develop a growth mindset and achieve their academic and career aspirations. You can have a look here!

5. Teach Your Teen Critical Skills to Prepare Them for Success

The success you desire for your teen will not happen haphazardly. There are crucial skills that you need to teach them early to prepare them for the success that you envisage for their future. A future you did not prepare your teen for might deal them harshly. Teaching your teen important success skills will give them an edge in the future. By the time they become adults, they will be mastering some of those skills while their peers are still beginners. 

Below is a list of some important skills that will help to shape your teen’s future for success:

  • Time management
  • Problem-solving
  • Money management
  • Financial literacy
  • Goal setting
  • Communication skills
  • Conflict resolution
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Resilience and adaptability
  • Emergency preparedness
  • Decision-making
  • Home maintenance

The above skills will prepare your teen to face the future with confidence and determination to succeed. We have a wealth of resources, such as blogs, programmes, webinars, and many more, that will help your teen develop the above-mentioned skills and prepare them for success at school and beyond.

6. Endorse Healthy Lifestyle Choices

A healthy mind and body will ensure a better performance in all areas of your child’s life. Therefore, encouraging them to make healthy lifestyle choices will be very crucial for their future. Get them to start sports of their choice or an activity that will help them do physical exercises regularly to keep a healthy body. Teach them the importance of having a healthy diet, adequate sleep, regular medical checkups, healthy relationships and a safe online lifestyle.

Educate them about the destructive effects of making unhealthy lifestyle choices. Have deep and healthy conversations with your teen, discussing mental health, substance abuse, online safety, relationships and similar topics, to help them distinguish the do’s from don’ts for a brighter future. Since you want to raise an independent and responsible teen, you need to be on the lookout for their safety and mental health. 

Do your level best to prevent them from making unhealthy lifestyle choices, engaging in toxic relationships, developing self-destructive habits, or ensnaring themselves in harmful addictions. Provide the counsel, the support, and all the needed help to ensure that your teen’s future is the best for them. They will make mistakes – and that’s fine! But you need to be there to help them rise whenever they fall, learn from their mistakes and see their failures as teachers.

Furthermore, you can also teach your teen the importance of kindness, empathy, integrity and honesty. Help them develop strong moral values and ethics from a young age! These will stay with them until adulthood, guide them in making ethical and responsible choices, and build a good reputation.

How Can You Get Started?

To sum this up, you have a very crucial role to play in shaping your teen’s future. Do not let them battle with it all by themselves. Even though their journey might be different from yours, you still have experience to share with them, advice to give, or support to offer. There are mistakes you made that you can prevent your teen from repeating, and there are successes that you have achieved that you can guide them to replicate.

For this reason, GT Scholars designed the Parent Hub. This is a platform to empower parents with tools and resources they can use to positively impact their children. Additionally, if you would like to receive insightful content to help your child to achieve their goals and aspirations, whether academically or beyond, you can sign up for our newsletter.

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