11 February, 2016
Teach Your Teen to ‘ReACT’ to Mistakes
All teens make mistakes. What’s important is what comes next. An ability to correct and learn from mistakes will keep your teen moving forward, in school and in life. When she makes a mistake, teach your teen to ReACT. Those letters stand for:
~ R ecognize that you failed. Admit it. This is the first—and often most difficult—step for teens. It’s important that your teen admit her failure to herself ... and to anyone she may have harmed. This doesn’t have to be a long speech. It can be as simple as this: "Mom, I know that when I come home after curfew, you wait up and can’t sleep. I’m sorry."
~ A nalyze what went wrong. A teen who doesn’t try to figure out what’s gone wrong is likely to make the same mistake again and again. Why did your teen miss curfew? Did she fail to leave her friend’s house early enough to get home on time? Did she forget to look at her watch? Whatever the cause of the problem, she needs to figure out exactly what to do differently next time.
~ C hange attitudes and actions. If your teen isn’t going to make the same mistakes, she needs to make some changes. She may need to change her attitude or her actions. That means that she can’t keep thinking, "Mom will never notice if I come in late." But she may need to say to her friends, "Hey, guys, I have to go. I need to be home in 20 minutes."
~ T ry again. The next time the situation presents itself, your teen will have another chance to do something different. Hopefully, this time she’ll know how to ReACT.
brought to you by
Hopkinton Middle School
