Parenting a Teen is hard.
But you don't have to get through it alone.
If you’re the parent of a teenager, you don't need me to tell you this is harder than you expected. You're already in the thick of it.
You might be wondering what happened to the little boy or girl who adored you and loved spending time with you.
And you might be wondering if you will EVER be able to communicate with your teen without bickering or power struggles.
The Teens Who Thrive podcast is a place for moms like you who want to bring more joy and connection back into your relationship with your teenager.
Here on Teens Who Thrive we'll talk about all things teens -- brain development, executive functioning, communication, mental health and more. Learn the tips, skills and insights you need to start enjoying a more connected relationship with your teenager.
Episode 18: The Secret Recipe for Parenting Teens -- Connection AND Boundaries
This episode explores how parents can foster trust and responsibility in teenagers by combining empathy with clear boundaries, creating a balanced approach to parenting.
27 May 2025
The Secret to your Teen's Behavior is...YOU!
Cheryl, host of Teens Who Thrive, examines how parents' self-awareness and emotional history influence their teen's behavior, offering strategies to improve family dynamics.
7 Aug 2024
Episode 16: How to Stop Doing Too Much for your Teen
As our kids transition into their teenage years, we all know it's essential to give them more responsibility and help them become accountable and independent. But how?
This week on Teens Who Thrive, we'll explore how to navigate this tricky middle stage of parenting. The stage where you know you shouldn’t be doing everything for them, but they aren’t quite ready to tackle everything on their own. The stage where we move from doing everything for our kids to doing things alongside them.
Inside the episode you’ll find concrete examples that include:
Navigating communication with your teen’s teacher
Time management and organization
Establishing a morning routine.
Parenting teens is about gradually transferring responsibility and fostering independence. By working alongside our teens and guiding them through new tasks, we prepare them for adulthood. This process might be messy and challenging, but it ultimately equips our kids with the skills they need to thrive on their own.
Join the Back-to-School Bootcamp: I know many parents feel uneasy about the transition from elementary school to middle school – from little kid to teenager – which is why I put together my new BOOTCAMP: Mastering Middle School Spend 10 days in an interactive group with me learning the essential skills and strategies to help you have a successful school year with your newly minted “tween”. Your child will be making the leap to teenager whether you’re ready or not. But you can do more than just hold on and try to survive the ride. Let me show you how. Learn more at coaching.cherylsomers.com/bootcamp (https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/bootcamp)
31 Jul 2024
Episode 15: Loosening the Reins in Middle School
We all know we need to give our teenagers a little more freedom. But how much? And how? Your teenager is growing and changing right before your eyes and it can be hard to figure out how much independence is the right amount. It can also be incredibly difficult and scary to let go of control as a parent.
This week on TEENS WHO THRIVE, I am giving you concrete examples of how to loosen your parenting reins just a little.
Join me this week to take at what it looks like to grant a little more freedom and independence when it comes to:
Academic responsibilities
Time management
Privacy
Decision-Making
When we do it right and we find the balance between freedom and oversight, we not only empower our teens to become more independent, but we also do wonders when it comes to keeping our relationship with them on solid ground.
Join the Back-to-School Bootcamp: I know many parents feel uneasy about the transition from elementary school to middle school – from little kid to teenager – which is why I put together my new BOOTCAMP: Mastering Middle School Spend 10 days in an interactive group with me learning the essential skills and strategies to help you have a successful school year with your newly minted “tween”. Your child will be making the leap to teenager whether you’re ready or not. But you can do more than just hold on and try to survive the ride. Let me show you how. Learn more at coaching.cherylsomers.com/bootcamp (https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/bootcamp)
2 Jul 2024
Episode 14: The eye-rolling isn't about you. Stop taking it personally.
We’ve all experienced it – the famous eye roll. Your teenager receives news they don’t like – usually about something they need to do that they don’t want to do – and they respond with an eye roll, an exaggerated sigh, or they storm away and maybe even slam a door.
It’s the teenager version of a toddler tantrum. I’ve worked with so many parents who come to me just furious about the eye rolling. “It’s so disrespectful” “It makes me so angry” etc.
So today we’re going to break down this teen body language and talk about:
what's behind this common teen behavior
the problem with taking it personally, and
how to deal with it more effectively
4 Jun 2024
Episode 13: CASE STUDY- The Battle over Summer Chores
Did you ever ready Choose-Your-Own_Adventure books as a kid? I loved those books!
And these CASE STUDY episodes are set up much the same way: I present a scenario that has come up in a recent parent session or teen session, and we will walk through 3 different options for how it might play out.
This week's scenario is about Teens and Summer Chores. How do we help our teen's learn that they need to contribute around the house and they need to do what's been asked in the timeframe that we expect?
More importantly, how can we do that WITHOUT nagging, arguing or exploding into a full-on-battle every single time.
On this week's episode we'll explore 3 different options for responding to requests that go ignored. You'll learn strategies to avoid:
passive-aggressive communication
provoking unneeded conflict
repeated nagging and arguing about getting it done
If you want your teen to be more responsible about doing what you've asked them to do around the house -- and you are committed to doing it WITHOUT the "because-I-said-so" tactics of obedience, compliance and punishment -- then this episode is for you!
Have you ever heard of COMMUNICATION STYLES? Are you curious to know more about what your style of communication is and how it might be affecting your relationship with your teen? Head over to my COMMUNICATION STYLES QUIZ (https://form.typeform.com/to/ZdgEGFpM)and answer a few short questions to get your results!
Want to send me a scenario for a future CASE STUDY episode? Send it to: cheryl@cherylsomers.com
15 May 2024
Episode 12: Why is Because-I-Said-So Parenting so Tempting?
This week on Teens Who Thrive we’re going to dive into 3 reasons why BECAUSE-I-SAID-SO parenting is so tempting.
The short answer is:
It’s easier
It looks pretty from the outside
It “seems like” there’s less fighting
But those are all short-term wins at the expense of long-term goals.
So we’re going to dig even deeper an explore:
➡Why it’s a bad idea
➡Why it doesn’t actually work
🌟And🌟 ➡What to do instead.
Have you ever heard of COMMUNICATION STYLES? Are you curious to know more about what your style of communication is and how it might be affecting your relationship with your teen? Head over to my COMMUNICATION STYLES QUIZ (https://form.typeform.com/to/ZdgEGFpM)and answer a few short questions to get your results!
7 May 2024
Episode 11: Are You Letting Your Teen Fail?
On this episode of Teens Who Thrive, we explore a crucial question for parents: How often do we truly allow our kids to fail? While the concept of letting children stumble and face natural consequences is widely acknowledged, putting it into practice is often challenging.
We will dive into several essential reasons our teens benefit from struggling:
-->Building resilience by giving them the opportunity to develop problem-solving skills.
-->Fostering independence as teens learn to solve their own problems. -
->Teaching accountability, helping teens understand the consequences of their actions.
-->Boosting confidence by helping our teens see they can accomplish challenging tasks.
We will also do some self-reflecting and get honest without ourselves about why this is so hard for us to do as parents, and why we are so tempted to jump in and rescue our kids when it might be better for them to struggle.
Special Invitation: —->>>>Your relationship with your teenager isn’t difficult because she’s a teenager. It’s difficult because she struggles (and maybe you struggle too!) with essential communication and regulation skills.
But the good news is that all of these skills – emotional regulation, conflict and communication skills, expressing empathy, understanding actions → consequences – all of these are critical skills that both you AND your teen need to develop if you want to enjoy a more connected relationship. J
oin me for my FREE MASTERCLASS for parents of teens: COMMUNICATE & CONNECT (https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/communication-webinar)where we will explore all of these skills and more!
https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/communication-webinar (https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/communication-webinar)
18 Apr 2024
Episode 10: Helping our Teens Manage BIG Feelings
One thing we know for sure about teenagers is that they have BIG feelings about everything. We know this not just from experience but from actual research about adolescent development. We know that teens experience emotions with more intensity than adults – they feel higher highs and lower lows. We also know that they often experience these big feelings all of the sudden and it can be very overwhelming and unsettling. So the question is – knowing all of this – how do we help our teens learn how to manage those big feelings. AND – how do we teach them that their big feelings are not an excuse for big, explosive behavior? In today's episode we will explore:
How to react in the moment when your teen is experiencing intense emotions.
How to give them space to work through the emotions.
How to process what happened
How to hold your teen accountable to repair any hurtful behavior
We will also discuss why this process can be so difficult for parents who want a quick fix or who feel really uncomfortable with conflict and big emotions.
P.S. I want to invite you to my free parent training “The Essential Skills your Teen Needs to Thrive” where we will talk all about the communication and self-regulation skills your teenager desperately needs and how you can be the one to teach them! Check out the free training here: https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/thrive-webinar (https://coaching.cherylsomers.com/thrive-webinar)
28 Feb 2024
Episode 9: Setting Boundaries that Stick
In today's episode, we're diving into all things boundaries!
I'm going to share my 3 favorite examples of moms setting simple but important boundaries that actually worked!
I'll walk you through these examples and highlight:
The different between boundaries and rules
Why it's so hard to be consistent with our boundaries
Why consistentcy and patience are essential
The positive effect of your boundaries on your relationship
The value of modeling healthy boundaries for your teen.
Have you ever heard of COMMUNICATION STYLES? Are you curious to know more about what your style of communication is and how it might be affecting your relationship with your teen? Head over to my COMMUNICATION STYLES QUIZ (https://form.typeform.com/to/ZdgEGFpM)and answer a few short questions to get your results!
7 Feb 2024
Episode 8: Why Won't My Teen Talk to Me?
I think nearly every parent at some point has said the phrase “you can tell me anything”. But so many parents end up frustrated because they feel like their teen isn’t opening up and never shares anything with them.
So what’s going on?
On today’s episode I invite parents to reflect on 4 key questions that will shed some light on why your teen might be reluctant to open up to you.
Together, we will explore:
How to respond to your teen in ways that invite more communication instead of less.
How your own habits and behavior are affecting how safe your teen feels being vulnerable with you
Strategies you can start using today to encourage more trust and more open communication from your teen.
Have you ever heard of COMMUNICATION STYLES? Are you curious to know more about what your style of communication is and how it might be affecting your relationship with your teen? Head over to my COMMUNICATION STYLES QUIZ (https://form.typeform.com/to/ZdgEGFpM)and answer a few short questions to get your results!
23 Jan 2024
Episode 7: How to gain more INFLUENCE in your teen's life by letting go of your need for CONTROL.
We've all heard the stereotype that teens refuse to take any advice from adults -- especially their parents. But I have to tell you -- my teen therapy clients tell me a different story. What I hear from them is that they absolutely value what their parents have to say, but they feel like whenever they approach their parents for advice, all they get is a lecture.
On today's episode, we will explore:
How to let go of control so our teens are more likely to turn to us for input or insight.
How to position ourselves a a person who has INFLUENCE over our teen's decisions.
How to get comfortable with letting our teens make decisions that go against our advice. (as long as it doesn't compromise their safety.)
Teen Mental Health Resources: A Guide for Parents Finding the right help for your teen's mental health struggles can be confusing and overwhelming. This free guide is designed to help you make sense of the options and take action toward getting your teen the support they need! Get your Guide HERE (https://cherylsomers.mykajabi.com/teen-mental-health-resources)
14 Dec 2023
Episode 6: Teens & Stress: Understanding the Stress Response Cycle
Let's talk about Stress. In my therapy practice where I work with teens and young adults, I work with kids every day who tell me their lives are super stressful. The stressors they experience are pretty typical – academic pressure, conflict with friends or family, worry about the future, etc.
But the stress itself isn’t really what concerns me. What I’m noticing in my teen clients is this pattern: 1)they experience something stressful
2) their body has a response to that stress that makes them uncomfortable
3) they avoid avoid avoid so that they don’t have to feel that discomfort.
On today's episode, we will explore:
1)How to help our teens understand what is happening in their nervous system when they experience stress.
2)Why it's a natural process and nothing they need to fear or avoid.
3) How to fully complete each stress cycle so they don't end up unleashing their stress energy in unhealthy ways.
Teen Mental Health Resources: A Guide for Parents
Finding the right help for your teen's mental health struggles can be confusing and overwhelming.
This free guide is designed to help you make sense of the options and take action toward getting your teen the support they need! Get your Guide HERE (https://cherylsomers.mykajabi.com/teen-mental-health-resources)
12 Dec 2023
Episode 5: What our teens LEARN vs what they ACQUIRE?
Many of you know I started my career as a foreign language teacher. And it occurred to me recently that parenting has something in coming with learning a new language.
When you learn a new language, there are things you “learn” – grammar, vocabulary, etc. and there are things you “acquire” – the sounds, the common phrases, the culture. Parenting has similar features –there are things we explicitly teach our kids and there are things they absorb or acquire simply by being in our family.
On today’s podcast we will explore the idea that there are things our teens are learning directly from us, and other things they acquire and absorb just by being in our presence and in our family. Join me for an interesting twist on how we think about parenting…
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Apple Podcasts (US)
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2 ratings
Spotify
4.7 / 5
15 ratings
Podcast Authority Score: 25 / 100
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Quality
26
Social presence
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YouTube
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Engagement
60
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