A monthly public affairs show hosted by high school students in Mendocino County California. They talk about teen/parent communication. Last fall Project Sanctuary hosted a public forum about communication between teenagers and their parents. We will discuss the subjects we covered at that forum, including substance use, birth control, active listening, and self-harm. Also we will talk about the positive and negative aspects of always having a device that hooks us up to the web.
Today our topic is Totally Teens, the title for a public forum hosted by Project Sanctuary in October. The subject was breaking down communication barriers between teenagers and their parents. Some of the hot-button issues that we discussed were Healthy relationships and Sexuality, Anxiety and Depression, Alcohol and Drugs. Our goal was to find ways to improve dialogue between parents and teens on subjects that are often avoided, because they create discomfort and embarrassment. Often teenagers experiment with substances like alcohol and marijuana at social gatherings, much like many of their parents do. YouthSpeaksOut! has done a number of shows on how drugs affect young brains differently than adult brains. These shows are available for listening at our website www.youthspeaksout.net. Today we want to talk about why it is difficult for teens to speak truthfully to their parents about their substance use, and how this communication might be improved. This is more difficult when the parents are consistent users of substances and insist that that their children never use those substances. Sexuality and healthy relationships are often awkward subjects for teens to discuss with parents. Some parents are open about their own sexuality and have very positive partnerships. Their children feel free to ask questions and get advice about sex. Some parents are inhibited about sexual relations and never discuss it with their children. Parents attitudes may be influenced by religious beliefs, personal experiences, or changing social norms. Some parents hope that sexual education will be taught at school, and some parents insist that their children not attend any such classes. Some young people can only learn about birth control and sexually transmitted diseases from their peers. Many teenagers grow up in households headed up by people in healthy relationships- people respect each other, grow together, and are honest with each other. On the other hand, many youth witness a wide variety of unhealthy partnerships- they often grow up thinking that abuse, addiction, and oppression are acceptable parts of people living together. Clearly some youth can get good advice about relationships from their parents and some cannot. It can be difficult for children to talk to parents about emotional and psychological issues. Many youth try to hide depression and anxiety from their family. Often parents will react to their children s emotional distress as if it is a sign of their failure in upbringing. The adults may view an emotional crisis as something to just get over, or that it is self-indulgent. They may express disappointment in the child s failure to maintain a happy attitude. The embarrassed youth may turn to self-medicating with substances or self-harm as a means of coping. Cutting and burning can be a way to gain control, and in some cases to gain attention. Fortunately our community has 24 hour hotlines for youth to vent and discuss emotional crises that might otherwise lead to recklessness or even suicide. Another subject we want to discuss today is youth and internet devices. Most everybody has one or more ways to connect to the world wide web. Most youth have smartphones so that wherever they are, they can text, engage in social media, or surf the web. This is a serious difference to growing up 20 years ago. There is always something to do. For some youth it is just playing video games. For others it is always texting back and forth with friends and family. Or looking at things on Youtube, Facebook, or an infinite number of websites. Always connected. It is important to note that many adults also exhibit this behavior. We are going to talk about what effect always having connection has on our minds. We have heard that youth often used to complain of being bored, of having nothing to do. Is this possible anymore? If distraction is endlessly available, is something lost? Some older people have suggested that those times of disconnection hold the greatest potential for creativity. We hope you will discuss this with us in the call-in part of the show. One of the advantages of the internet is community, local and global. If we find a topic not talked about by our friends, we can probably explore it through the web. In that way the connectedness clearly expands what we know, and allows us to bring it in to our community. We will discuss these topics for about 30 minutes then we will want you to call in and share your opinions. The phone number will be 707 456-9991. We will tell you when we want you to call. So let s start the show by talking about the forum on communication between teens and their parents. ************************************************************
We re going to open the phone lines now. The phone number is 707 456-9991. Everyone is welcome to call Please call in if you have questions or insights communication between teens and parents, or a world that is always connected through web devices. Was it easy for you to communicate with your parents? Were there certain topics that could set off a family crisis by bringing them up? Is it easy for you to communicate with your teenagers? Are there certain topics that will set off a family crisis by bringing them up? Do you know methods that youth and their parents can use to freely about substance use? Does growing marijuana make it difficult to speak openly about drugs? Can you talk candidly with your children about sex? How about to your parents? If you are older, how were you able to talk to your parents about sex? How did you overcome embarrassment? How can youth communicate experiences of anxiety and depression to their parents? Is the ability to always be connected to the web a good thing, or is it endless distraction? Is detachment from communication a key to creativity?
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