At 14, friends are suddenly much more interesting than family plans. I do not want forced 'fun', but I also do not want us to stop doing anything together. How much space did you give while still keeping some family routine?
I would avoid making every low mood a big family meeting. Sometimes being available quietly worked better than asking them to explain immediately. We try to keep one open channel without demanding every detail. Your child's response may be different, but this was our experience.
I would avoid making every low mood a big family meeting. Sometimes being available quietly worked better than asking them to explain immediately. We are in Hyderabad and this came up for us last year.
I would avoid making every low mood a big family meeting. Sometimes being available quietly worked better than asking them to explain immediately. We changed our approach after about a month because the first plan was too hard to sustain.
Did your child take time to adjust, or was the improvement fairly quick? The conversation went better when we did it outside the middle of an argument. We are in Chennai, so local logistics may be a little different.
This helps. I am going to add this to the questions for our next visit/meeting. The conversation went better when we did it outside the middle of an argument. We made the change gradually rather than all at once.
Thanks for saying this. Online advice often makes normal family life sound much more organised than it really is. We also explained what would earn more freedom rather than only listing restrictions. We only reached that conclusion after trying the other approach first.