Feature Article:::...

Teens need to know parents, other adults care

By: Linda Brittenham, B.S.ed.

As October approaches, the National Teen Pregnancy Prevention Campaign recognizes this as the month to TALK. It is “Let’s Talk” Month, a national public education emphasis to encourage parents and their children to communicate.

In recognition of this national campaign, the Tennessee Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program of the Sullivan County Regional Health Department encourages all influential people in a teen’s life to have the TAPPP-TALK

T — Take time to be a caring adult in a teen’s life.

A — Ask questions and encourage them to ask questions.

L — List your hope and values with your kids.

K — Keep explaining to your kids that making good choices when it comes to relationships and waiting to have sex can prevent many heartaches and problems.

TALK with your kids early and often. Start talking to your kids early about not just what they want to be when they become adults, but who they want to be.

Parents are a young person’s first, best, and most important teacher. Fact: Parents are still the most significant influence in a teen’s life!

Use your Parent Power to teach your kids about sex, love and relationships.
Offer concrete guidance about expected behavior.
Focus on the quality of good relationships.
Help teens understand that certain behaviors result in certain outcomes, there are causes and effects over which they have control and that not hurting themselves or others is a personal responsibility that contributes to the common good of the family and community.
Foster healthy development of self-esteem.
Provide your kids with valid information from you.
Create a climate and atmosphere in our homes, communities, and in our country where teens believe that a joyful, gratifying life is ahead of them, and they possess the capacity to achieve fulfillment.
Explain to our kids, we are responsible for the choices that we make.

Every day we make choices. Every choice we make carries with it at least one consequence. We must recognize we are the ones responsible for our choices. We are responsible for the way we choose to think and to feel. While we might not be responsible for all that happens to us, we are responsible for how we respond and how we react.

Quoting excerpts from the poem “Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.:

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence

If children live with praise, they learn appreciation

If children live with acceptance, they learn to love

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves

If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal

If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness

If children live with kindness, and consideration, they learn respect

If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them

If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

The common goal of communication with our teens is to provide valuable education, enabling them to make healthy decisions for a successful future, and to provide information that would benefit them as they grow into healthy and productive adults.

For additional information, call 279-2860 or e-mail lbrittenham@sullivanhealth.org.

--------Health & Wellness--------

Linda Brittenham, B.S.E., is the Tennessee Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program Coordinator for the Sullivan County Regional Health Department.