| If you work with troubled teens, chances are likely | | | | realize after speaking with him that he works three |
| that a few of them come from a single-parent family. | | | | jobs just to put a little money back for his son's |
| This makes the teenager's problem all the more | | | | college fund. Or maybe you'd like to accuse a mother |
| acute because it is always difficult to be without one | | | | of being harsh toward her children until you realize |
| parent, and it is even more difficult to build good | | | | that she is stressed to her utmost limit and can't help |
| relationships with the parent who is at home because | | | | but act out of her frustration and exhaustion. |
| that parent is likely to have to work a lot to make | | | | Whatever the case, listen before you speak. And |
| ends meet. The situation is no better from the | | | | when you do start speaking, watch the parent's |
| parent's perspective, either, as he or she probably | | | | reaction. If you suggest too much too quickly, you |
| regrets not getting to spend more time with the | | | | may cause him to shut down and wall you out, |
| children. Either way, counseling the single parent of a | | | | shooting your chances of productive conversations in |
| troubled teen can be a particularly difficult task, one | | | | the future. So definitely come with some ideas about |
| that takes skill, understanding, and delicacy. | | | | how to help her troubled daughter get out of the |
| First off, when you're going into a single-parent | | | | mess she's making, but don't shove them all at her at |
| home, know that the person you're talking to is likely | | | | once. |
| to be very independent because he or she has been | | | | Instead, pick a few of the most important points on |
| breadwinner and homemaker, mother and father to | | | | your list and talk about them in a compassionate |
| his or her children for a while. This is not an easy job; | | | | way, being sure to listen for the parent's reactions. If |
| it takes dedication and hard work and can leave the | | | | one point comes across well, keep pressing forward |
| best of us feeling exhausted, mentally drained, and | | | | to see how far the parent is willing to go to help the |
| frustrated. Barelling into a single-parent home and | | | | troubled youth at the moment. If you have too |
| bossing mom or dad around will probably cause the | | | | many points to process all at once, just give it some |
| parent to unleash some of that frustration in your | | | | time. |
| direction. | | | | When it comes to advising the single parents of |
| So, be sure that you really understand what you're | | | | troubled teens, you can't be too compassionate, |
| walking into before you start throwing out unwanted | | | | patient, or careful. These parents, just like every |
| advice. Find the parent a babysitter, take her out to | | | | other, want to help their children succeed, but they |
| coffee, and spend some time just listening to her | | | | may also have more emotional and practical barriers |
| side of things. Maybe you feel that a single father | | | | that must be carefully overcome for your advice to |
| has completely neglected his son's education but you | | | | be taken correctly. |