Stay Under Your Own Umbrella! Modeling Healthy Boundaries for Your Teen

Biggest Takeaways:

• You have your own umbrella (so does everyone else) and underneath it are your own thoughts, feelings, values, etc.
• You are not responsible for what is under anyone else’s umbrella – and no one else is responsible for what’s under yours
• When you try to take responsibility for anyone else’s thoughts, feelings, values, etc., you are under their umbrella, not your own
• When you’re under someone else’s umbrella, it means they don’t have to be responsible for their own stuff – because you’re doing the job for them
• Our teens have their own umbrellas and trying to control their thoughts, feelings, values, etc. will backfire
• When we dialog about what is good, loving, and healthy rather than what makes me happy, we can have more productive conversations
• When you have teens, there are lots of gray areas, and sometimes you hold conflicting values – you have to figure out what value has priority in that moment and situation
• My responsibility as a parent is to train, model, and reinforce with the hope that my teens will adopt my values and beliefs – they have the freedom to adopt or reject them

You can join the Umbrella discussion here on FaceBook.

To listen to other discussions between Tami and Amy, check out Episodes 9 and 10.

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