Emotional Well-Being for Teens
Mental health and emotional well-being for teens are newer topics for our society. As members of Generation X, Jamie and I are keenly aware of the deficits in these lessons when we were growing up. These lessons, along with information about healthy partnerships and boundaries were just not taught or modeled for us, for a number of reasons.
These are certainly new topics being addressed in your younger generations. Concern for the social and emotional well-being for teens has thankfully begun to make its way into our children’s schools. Because those of us in older generations were not taught these things, we need to catch up and help to be a part of the learning and change. That’s why we are so passionate about teaching what we’ve learned about these topics.
Relationship Building: The Boundary House Method for Teens
We’ve found that teaching our children about boundaries using the Boundary House visualization has helped them to understand what boundaries mean and then how to apply the concept to their social lives. When we’re young, everyone can be “friends” in daycare and early elementary school. But the reality is that as kids grow, they form bonds with certain people and not with others. Those bonds are based on all sorts of things , such as common interests, feeling accepted, not wanting to be alone, and so forth. But children don’t necessarily know how to develop trusting bonds or recognize when they are being treated poorly.
We taught our children how to keep people “in the yard” of their Boundary House and how to begin learning about and building trust with someone. We taught them that it’s okay to not share their secrets with “friends” before they develop a trusting friendship and to identify what a trusting friendship looks like. We taught them that kids can be fickle, and it’s okay to move a friend they had previously confided into the “yard” part of their house if needed. We’ve educated them on what social media “friends” are and how to limit their sharing on these platforms. We’ve helped them to have less of a “all good” or “all bad” approach to their peers. We’ve watched them have difficult conversations with friends or gently move away from relationships that were harmful to their well-being without villainizing another person. The Boundary House is the central part of these lessons for our children. It’s a simple and easy-to-understand visualization that will make a huge impact on the way they participate in their relationships.
Check out our Boundary Houses page and Boundary House Videos to learn about establishing healthy boundaries for you and your family.