5 Ideas for Making Memories With Your Child (age 12+)

Adolescence is a trying time for children and parents. Pre-teens and teens often spend these years developing their own identity and becoming independent of parents. As such, this age group might be less willing to make special memories with their parents.
For parents, it’s important to recognize the challenges of the early teen years and respond in an appropriately effective manner. To ensure your child’s growth remains on-track throughout adolescence, parents must remain level-headed and appeal to the critical childhood development stages as you go about making memories.

1. “Quality Time”

Giving your child your full attention appeals to this age group’s narcissistic tendencies. Quality time creates designated points throughout the week to reconnect with children and rediscover one another’s likes/dislikes. Teens tend to be reserved from parents, but making one-on-one time (without any distractions) a weekly routine reinforces the importance of communicating with one another.

•  Seeing a movie
•  Dinner “date”
•  Nightly walk/jog

2. Volunteer

Due to teen’s general self-centeredness, they often have difficulty recognizing that a world exists beyond their point of view. Volunteering is a great bonding experience and also helps you both feel more connected to the community. As you contribute back to the community that helped to raise your child, you’ll also become more aware of the local society that influences your child. Teens are self-centered — they often have difficulty recognizing that a world exists beyond their point of view. Volunteering is a great bonding experience and also helps you both feel more connected to the community. As you contribute back to the community that helped to raise your child, you’ll also become more aware of the local society that influences your child.
Volunteering creates opportunities to open up with one another about ethics and morality — two concepts that are still developing during adolescence. Plus, community-based volunteering activities show your child that their actions have effects on the world.

•  Humane Society
•  Soup kitchens
•  Goodwill/Salvation Army

3. Try Something New

Peer pressure becomes an inevitable part of adolescence. Provide positive pressure by identifying new skills and enhancing already-established skills. Do something neither of you has done before, and work with your child to assess the cost-benefit relationship of the activity. How much time/effort/money is needed to complete the activity versus the new skills learned? Modeling decision-making behaviors teaches your teen how to respond to peer pressure effectively.

•  Painting classes
•  Horseback riding
•  Yoga/Pilates

4. Career Shop

As educational expectations become more rigorous, students are often forced to start making career-related decisions early in life. Pinpointing work-based skills that can be applied in the professional world are not often done in school. Doing team-building activities in the home help prepare your child for life after secondary school ends.

•  Starting a blog
•  Personality quizzes
•  Bring Your Child to Work Day