14-year-old parenting tools by Center for Health and Safety Culture

Mental health is vital to well-being, especially during the middle school years when teens are developing emotionally and facing new social and academic challenges. Just like physical health, mental health needs attention and support. At this age, fourteen-year-olds benefit from learning skills to help them manage emotions and build resilience.

Fourteen-year-olds require the ability to follow directions to get along at home and to succeed at school. Whether they are completing chores, following safety instructions, completing assignments, or showing their knowledge on tests, they will need to be able to follow directions. Though telling your teen to do something may seem simple, listening and engaging in several steps in instruction necessitates numerous brain functions in addition to motivational factors. 

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship, and setting up a homework routine provides a terrific opportunity. 

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, your influence is vital in your teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-teen relationship while instilling confidence in your teen to persist toward their goals and succeed in all areas of life. Everyone faces challenges, yet mistakes and failures are necessary for your fourteen-year-old’s learning and development. With your guidance and support, mistakes become a tool for learning and growing confidence.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child/teen relationship, and growing reading skills is a great way to do it.    

Trust is truly foundational for healthy relationships. As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a vital role in your fourteen-year-old’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child/teen relationship and understand how to promote trust in your child/teen.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child/teen relationship while building necessary listening skills in your child/teen.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship, and growing your child’s/teen’s skills to respectfully communicate provides an excellent opportunity.  

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a valuable role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship. Growing your child’s/teen’s skills to manage anger provides a terrific opportunity.  

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a crucial role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship. Teaching your child/teen to repair harm is a terrific opportunity. 

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a crucial role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child/teen relationship and ensure that your child/teen develops a healthy relationship with technology.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s//teen’s success. There are intentional ways to teach your child/teen to communicate well; working with them to transform disrespect is an excellent opportunity.   

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-child relationship, and daily chores provide an excellent opportunity. 

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play a crucial role in your teen's success. There are intentional ways to nurture a healthy parent-teen relationship while growing confidence in your teen to work to meet their goals and achieve success in life and school.

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play an important role in your fourteen-year-old’s success. Supporting your teen in learning to understand and deal with bullying behavior is important for their success in and out of school. One in five children experiences bullying, which can come in the form of repeated name-calling, insults, rumors, taunting, social exclusion, or physical harm.^

Teens continually note differences in their world. Parents or those in a parenting role have an opportunity to support teens as they make sense of differences among people by talking to them about what they notice.

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play a key role in your child’s/teen’s success and development. Helping your child/teen grow and maintain healthy friendships is imperative. Your child/teen develops a sense of belonging through relationships. Through their interactions with you, their teachers, and their peers, they come to better understand themselves. 

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your teen’s success. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-teen relationship, and establishing rules about cannabis helps create the supportive conditions that equip your teen to manage risk.

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your teen's success. There are intentional ways to cultivate a healthy parent-teen relationship, and creating rules about alcohol helps promote the supportive conditions that are essential for your teen to handle risk.

Now is the right time to become more informed about the challenges that may face your child/teen related to alcohol and how you can support their success and healthy decision-making. 

Now is the right time to increase your awareness about the challenges regarding cannabis that may face your child/teen and how you can support their success and healthy decision-making.

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a valuable role in your child’s/teen’s success. There are intentional ways to foster a healthy parent-child/teen relationship, and daily routines provide a timely opportunity. 

As a parent or someone in a parenting role, you play a critical role in your teen's success. There are intentional ways to foster a healthy parent-teen relationship, and assisting your teen in learning how to deal with peer pressure provides a valuable opportunity.

Children/Teens ages 11-14 are asserting their independence while still being dependent on important adults in their lives. They will naturally test limits and break rules as they grow. This is a normal part of their development and needed for learning and maturing. 

Teens and adults alike feel stress. Stress is the physical or mental response to an external cause, such as an argument within a friend group or struggling with a big school project. Feelings of stress are built-in mechanisms for human survival and safety. These feelings are the body’s way of warning you when there is a threat and calling your focus to problems that need attention. A stressor can be one-time or ongoing.  On the other hand, anxiety is the body’s reaction to stress and can occur even if there is no current threat. While all humans experience some anxiety, when worries and fears become persistent, they can begin to interfere with everyday life and impact your teen’s health.  As a parent or those in a parenting role, you can guide your teen to learn to identify and manage their stress -- an important skill they will use for a lifetime. 

Fourteen-year-olds are working to understand what it means to act responsibly. They are:

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play an important part in helping your child/teen develop empathy. Empathy is the way people effectively relate to one another. It’s the ability to perceive what other people are feeling, understand that information, and respond in a compassionate way. There are intentional ways to develop a healthy parent-child/teen relationship while growing your child’s/teen’s capacity for empathy from the time they are infants all the way through their teen years. Empathy is critical for your child/teen to experience healthy happy relationships because it allows for emotional connection to others. It begins early with family and friends and extends as they develop into successful school, work, social, and even romantic relationships.

As a parent or those in a parenting role, you play an essential role in your teen’s success and development. There are intentional ways to grow a healthy parent-teen relationship, and growing your teen’s skills to manage conflict provides an ideal opportunity.