Having had two teens of my own and advising countless others it occurred to me that the best advice for parents for summer planning for teens is often one that is counter intuitive. Teen years can be full of struggles as kids try to find their place in school, with friends, and in life in general. As parents we support and nurture them as they try to find their way. We feel so good when they are happy, engaged and comfortable.
However often the best advice for how to choose a summer program once your teen has found their groove is ask them to consider stepping out of it.
Challenge them to…
- Choose the program that seems a stretch
- Go some place new and different
- Eat food that is foreign and may be strange
- Push harder physically than they thought possible
- Meet kids who are different from best friends at home
- Consider issues that make them think of the world differently
Moving outside of the comfort zone that they worked so hard to find just might spark a new way of looking at their lives and how they fit moving forward.
