Parenting teens is not just about caring for their physical and educational needs. It’s also about training your teen to handle what life will later dish out, with body and soul intact. It’s about teaching self-control.

After all, your child will spend 80% of his lifetime away from you.  So, you need to ask yourself this question: “Am I willing to relinquish control to my teenager before he leaves home in order to help him learn how to act and become the one God desires him to be?”

Teens gradually need to get their feet wet in decision-making, since one day soon they will be fully in control of their own life and self-control will be paramount. Your main goal, then, should be about preparation for making good life decisions. It’s more than teaching how to handle the finances, or how to pick the best classes, or driving responsibly. It’s about training them to be godly men or women and developing their character.

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It’s raining rain from the skies and with every pitter patter of a raindrop kissing the parched and dry earth the monsoon is weaving its romantic spell around us. Rain and romance are absolutely inseparable. Starting with the Raj Kapoor, Nargis classic to the modern day romantic rain songs the monsoons is proof of this fact.

As far as rain and romance goes all people can be broadly divided into two categories- people who find rains romantic and people who find rains depressing. But, there is a catch here. Those people who find the rains depressing do so because their partners are not with them or they still haven’t found a partner. So, even depression during the rains has a romance related reason.

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When we communicate with someone we will be doing so on a number of levels, not just the words that we use - tone of voice and body language are also important factors in non-verbal communication.

Eye contact - is one of the most powerful means of communication after words. It can be direct or indirect, long-lasting or short and more usually intermittent when talking to someone in normal conversation. Staring or holding eye contact for too long can make people feel uncomfortable and is unsettling. Appropriate eye contact is important for effective communication.

People who like or feel comfortable with each other engage in eye contact more frequently. People who avoid eye contact are likely to be feeling uncomfortable, guilty or embarrassed.

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Have you ever heard the phrase “You are what you eat”? This catchy slogan from the fitness industry reminds us that how we “spend” our calories determines our health. Want to be fat? Then eat lots of fat. Want to be healthy? Well, you get the idea.

When it comes to your marriage,”YOU ARE WHAT YOU DO.” In other words, how you and your spouse SPEND YOUR TIME determines the strength of your marriage. Spend it together and you’ll feel connected. Do your own thing too often and you might sleep in the same bed, but you’ll feel worlds apart.

At the beginning of your relationship, you probably had no trouble spending lots of time together doing just about anything. And, in fact, SHARING TIME was exactly what CREATED CLOSENESS between you. But as the years went by, you probably took up separate interests, and began to spend more and more time apart.

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Parenting teenagers is full of extremes. There are great joys while parenting teenagers and also great disappointments. The teen years are a time when the child is slowly separating themselves from their parent’s tight hold and parents need to realize this.

Each child needs to gradually be weaned off the total parental control into a world of adulthood. This can be a difficult experience but also an exciting one. As a parent, one has been working to prepare his child for adulthood and now the goal is about to be achieved. A parent needs to celebrate the teenagers step towards independence while continuing to provide a safety net.  

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