Believe It Or Not, You Can Find Common Ground With A Teenager

Often, it can feel like finding common ground with kids is near enough impossible. Be honest; they seem like an alien species most of the time, don’t they? Conversations are short-lived at best, and you couldn’t be further apart while living in the same house.

As hard as it is to believe, though, common ground is often easier to find than we might think. Your kids grew up under your nurturing touch, after all. Despite the way they act, then, the chances are that they’re into at least some of the same things as you. It may be, for example, that they're interested in joining a choir, same as you. Or, perhaps your teen enjoys remote control toys just like the ones you spend hours admiring on sites like My RCtopia. Even something as simple as liking the same kinds of books is a common ground of sorts.

Once you find similarities like these, you could join a club, or arrange a time to get stuck into them together. And, when that happens, you could soon find yourself on the right end of the following benefits.

A sure footing for spending quality time

Getting older kids to agree to even small amounts of quality time can be challenging. They’re evasive, sketchy, and generally do what they can to get out of arrangements. Is that any surprise when you ask them to do things which they have no interest in? By comparison, finding common ground gives you a stable footing on which to get the quality time that you need. If you join a club or make set arrangements, you’ll have something even reliable to go on. You certainly shouldn’t need to push for quality time again after this.

A chance to open the doors of communication

Sometimes, it can feel as though our kids don’t tell us anything about their lives. We can go months without hearing about their friends or schoolwork. This can be especially hard if you see them struggling. The thing is that, often, our kids actually want to open up to us. Yet, they feel like they don’t know how to breach that communication barrier. The moment you find common footing with them, though, you break it down yourself. You may soon discover, then, that they start to confide you in during that special time you’ve set aside for each other.

An opportunity to understand each other better

At the very least, finding common ground provides you a chance to understand each other. That’s valuable given the most issues between parents and children come down to miscommunications. When you meet up for this group or activity, you’ll get a chance to see each other in a setting which isn’t ‘parent and child’. And, you may just find that helps you to build the great connection which has been missing until now. All you need to do is make sure that keep your dad head at home, and focus on the common ground which is oh-so important.