Tag Archives: empathy

Helping Teens Cope with Stress

So many parents are concerned about how stressed out their teens are. Helping them cope with stress can be tricky when it seems like they don’t want our help or interference. I asked Jennifer Salerno to write a blog for you based on her book, Teen Speak, an essential guide in communicating with your teen. Teenagers seem like they don’t want us around, but when we connect in ways they can hear, we provide the support they both need and want.

Dr. Jennifer Salerno, founder and CEO of Possibilities for Change and author of Teen Speak writes:

During my career working with adolescents in a variety of settings, a surprisingly common theme among teens is their intense levels of stress. Unfortunately, many adults tend to blow off the seriousness or validity of teen stress, often considering their problems insignificant. It may be surprising to think that teens often experience higher levels of stress than adults. A study of more than 1,000 teens revealed an average stress score of 5.8 on a 10-point scale—with 3.9 being a healthy level of Read more…

New Year’s Resolutions: 10 Exhausting Things to Give Up

If you’re making New Year’s resolutions this year, remember less is more. The key to becoming a better and happier parent in the new year is NOT to add on any expectations of yourself that you can’t be successful meeting. You’ll just feel worse. That does no one any good.

Some parents need to spend more time with their kids and actually do more at home so their kids can have a childhood instead of being expected to run the household. My guess is that most parents reading this blog would do better to subtract from what they are presently doing, let go of some of their assumed obligations, know what they are responsible for and drop the rest, and let their children fight or play more on their own with less parental supervision.

Here are some of the things my Facebook followers would like to drop:

~ feeling less anxious

~ hovering

~ always being in control

~ worrying about what I’m doing wrong

~ impatience

~ trying to get him to be the person I want him to Read more…

Empathy vs Sympathy

There is a fine line between sympathy and empathy. Learning the difference can make huge changes in your relationship with your child.

Sympathy directs attention to how you feel.
Empathy is about listening. It tells your child you are paying attention to how she feels.
Sympathy is about me. Empathy is about you.
Empathy has nothing to do with how you feel; it’s about understanding how the other feels given their circumstance.

Empathy and sympathy as metaphor:

Imagine a huge hole in the ground with Man A stuck at the bottom unable to escape. Man B walks nearby and hears Man A calling for help. Man B sees Man A at the bottom of the hole and jumps in to help. Now both are stuck at the bottom of the hole. Man C walks by and hears both A and C calling for help. Man C tells them he will be back soon. Later, Man C arrives with a ladder.

Man B acted out of sympathy for Man A and jumped in thinking he was helping Man A. Now Read more…