Create a Responsibility Contract

Your teen messes up and loses your trust — how do they gain it back? It can help to create a responsibility contract with your teen. Sit down together and negotiate how your teen can regain privileges. Remember, negotiation means both people listen and meet somewhere in the middle; this needs collaboration to be successful. Done well, teens will see the clear link between responsibility and earned privileges. Also, you don’t need to wait for a mistake to be made. Create a responsibility contract now, updating the contract from time to time, to have a tool that generates trust and understanding.

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About Melissa Ford

Melissa Ford is the senior strategist at Women Online. As a writer, she covers a diverse range of topics including education, health, technology, and parenting. She is also the mother of amazing twin teens.

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