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How to Repair a Broken Relationship with Your Daughter or Son

podcast Aug 01, 2023

This is Going to Be FUN: the Podcast

Episode 58: What to Do When You Lose It With Your Teen 

 

Episode Summary:

How To Repair a Broken Relationship With Your Daughter or Son

The age-old question parents everywhere are wondering: how to repair a broken relationship with your teenage daughter or son?

Have you ever lost your cool with your teen and said or done something you immediately regretted? As much as it might feel like your relationship with your teen is beyond repair, it is not the end of the world.

Learn the 4 steps you can take to make ammends after a fight with your teen so you can make things right.

Not only will this process improve your relationship with your teen, but it teaches your teen important skills they will need to navigate challenges in future relationships. Making repairs after losing your cool is one of the best ways to create mutual love and understanding.

If you want help improving a damaged relationship with your teen, join my ENJOY community or schedule a FREE Parenting Strategy

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Feel bad about yelling at your teenager? How to Repair a Broken Relationship with Your Daughter or Son

Sometimes, despite our best intentions, we lose our cool with our teenager. I was talking to a mom recently who lost her cool with her teenage daughter. The mom felt bad about what she said in the heat of the moment. She wondered if there was any way to repair the broken relationship with her daughter and worried that yelling at her daughter might have done permanent damage to their relationship. 

There was a lot of built-up frustration and conflict leading up to the incident, and finally she lost her temper and exploded. She felt horrible and didn’t know where to start to make things right. 

If you have ever felt this way after yelling at your teen, I want you to know that it is not the end of the world. I am sharing the advice that I gave this mom in hopes that it will help you the next time that you feel bad about yelling at your teenager or don’t show up the way you wanted to.

There’s no such thing as a perfect parent

The truth is, there are no perfect parents – we all stumble along the way.

But here’s the thing: we wouldn’t want to be perfect parents even if we could. The strongest relationships aren’t the ones that never encounter conflicts or issues. The strongest relationships are the ones that can weather the storms, make mistakes and then repair and make amends.

And it isn’t just losing your temper and yelling at your teen. You might break their trust, violate their privacy, make empty threats, drop the ball or embarrass them in front of their friends. But each one gives you the opportunity to teach your teen about healthy relationships and what it looks like to repair relationship damage

So how do we do that?

What to do when you lose your cool with your teen

1. Process Your Own Emotions

Before talking to your teenager about what happened, there’s a crucial step you must take – processing your own emotions. Let’s face it, you didn’t blow up or react in a certain way for no reason. Deep down, you had your reasons, and you need to explore them. What triggered you? What were you feeling in the moment? What meaning were you giving to the way your teenager was behaving and acting in that moment? 

This is absolutely something you can do on your own. But if it is challenging, a coach can be a really helpful resource to help you separate yourself from all the drama and emotion and give you some outside perspective. Whether you do it on your own or with the help of a coach, exploring the answers to these questions is going to bring up a lot of emotions, and you need to process them. 

If you don’t know how to processing your emotions, you can download my FREE Processing Emotions guideto learn how to do it step-by-step. I know you will want to skip this step, but I promise it will make all the difference in the steps that come next. 

 

2. Take Responsibility for your Actions

Once you’ve processed your own emotions, you have to take responsibility for your part in the conflict. Now, this doesn’t mean that you have to take responsibility for everything. There were probably a lot of different factors that contributed to why you did what you did, but you need to take responsibility for the part that was you. 

If you lost your temper and yelled at your teen, own it. Own that you responded in a way that was immature and inappropriate.

If you invaded their privacy or broke their trust, own it. Own that you did something you shouldn’t have done without talking to them about it first. 

Now this part is going to feel terrible. You have to be willing to see yourself clearly without blaming others, justifying your behavior or explaining why you acted that way. In the coaching world, we call this emotional adulthood. It’s simply taking responsibility for your own thoughts, feelings, and actions, and not giving responsibility to anything outside of you.

 

3. Apologize to Your Teen

Once you have processed your own emotions and taken responsibility for your part in the conflict, you need to apologize to your teen. This step may not be easy for most parents, especially ones who never received an apology from their own parents growing up. It might feel like you’re giving away all your power or damaging your credibility with your teen.

But apologizing when you make a mistake is one of the best things you can do for your relationship with your teen. Not only does it build a stronger relationship between you and your teen, but it also teaches them valuable skills that they will need in future relationships.

It is really important to keep the following do’s and don’ts in mind when you apologize:

DO:

be sincere

acknowledge what you did wrong

share what you were thinking and feeling that caused you to act that way

say “I’m sorry” as a complete sentence

 

DO NOT:

Point out their bad behavior (this is not the time for correction)

Blame other people or things

Make excuses

Justify your actions

Expect them to apologize in return

Not only will this make your apology more sincere, but it helps your teen make important connections between the logical and emotional parts of their brain. These are connections that are still developing during the teen years, and each time they experience someone connecting what they were thinking and feeling to what they did, those connections get stronger. 

While your teen probably won’t immediately start making those connections and apologizing for their own behavior, but they will start to learn that valuable skill. The more they see this process modeled for them, the more they will develop the skill themselves and make those connections more quickly and more easily in the future. 

 

4. Show your Teen you Love Them

Once you have offered a sincere apology to your teenager and explained why you acted the way you did, let them know how much you love them!

Tell them how much they mean to you; how much you wish you hadn’t done that because your relationship with them means a lot to you; and that you’re genuinely ready to try and do better in the future. 

If they’re open to it, end this conversation with a great big hug so both of you can release all of the stress and tension that has been built up by this conflict in your relationship.

 

It is never too late to repair a broken relationship with your teen

Conflict means you are doing this whole parenting thing right. You are normal. Your teen is normal. Use it as an opportunity for you to build a stronger relationship with your teen and to teach them important relationship skills that they are going to need throughout the rest of their life.

If you are navigating some difficult challenges with your teen or feel like your relationship with them is beyond repair, please reach out to me. I love to support families in creating more safe and loving relationships. 

You can get ongoing personalized help and support from me inside of my Enjoy Coaching community, or if you feel like your situation is more severe, schedule a free Parenting Strategy session and I can help you determine what kind of support you need. 

Remember, it is never too late to repair a broken relationship with your daughter or son!

  

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