RULE 87
Show some respect for the things they care about
I know a man who started to develop psychological problems as a teenager. He used to spend as much time as he could in his bedroom listening to music, which was the one thing that really gave him pleasure. As time went on things became worse. Even after he’d left home the problems continued. Many years later he said a very interesting thing. He explained that one of the biggest blows to his confidence was the way his parents used to bang on about the awful music he listened to.
You see, when you criticise your teenager’s choices, you criticise them. It’s an age of fragile egos and easily knocked self-esteem, and it’s easy to make your teenager feel that you disapprove, or even that you ...
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