In The Loop With Andy Andrews

On this week’s episode, Andy answers a listener question about the best way to communicate with teenagers. Listener question: • When my daughter was 12, her three best friends moved away. Around that same time, another friend decided to tell her everything people didn’t like about her. We’ve been trying for the past three years to empower her again. She is now at a new school, but can’t seem to break out of the “new girl” frame of mind. What do we do as parents to break her out of this rut? The most important thing you could do at this time is to be friends and talk to her. Really talk to her. • Sometimes you will have to talk about why you are talking to her. • A lot of times, kids this age tend to go to their room and put up a do-not-disturb sign. • In spite of this, you still must talk to them. It is important that you don’t teach your kids what to think, but how to think. • We see this problem in our schools, but we tend to ignore it at home. • Many parents sadly miss the opportunity to have lo