We had another encouraging turnout and a good time at Saturday’s PSST meeting at the Trinity Lutheran Church in Wexford. Plus a wonderful selection of sweet, tasty donuts and hot coffee.
Val, Lloyd and Kathie led the meeting. We had 8 parents and a parent's friend representing 6 families. We were happy to have a nice mix of familiar faces as well as some returning parents.
Val, Lloyd and Kathie led the meeting. We had 8 parents and a parent's friend representing 6 families. We were happy to have a nice mix of familiar faces as well as some returning parents.
Each of us had an opportunity to talk over our own situation and issues.
We discussed using the power words: "I am not comfortable with that" and many had examples of how those words are effective. We talked about a teen who will be home soon from placement and will be asked to follow a contract. We had parents whose teen does not want to return home from vacation to face probation. We touched on ways to extend a teens probation. We had another parent who was excited about her first visit to see her daughter who is in placement. We talked about honesty and trust and about relapsing and how to keep a teen busy and out of trouble while parents are at work.
After a break we had two role plays.
The first was on honesty and how the real consequence of lying is that the liar is not trusted.
The second role play was of a mom driving her son and some friends home and smelling alcohol. The challenge was to let the teen know that the parent was aware that someone in the car smelled of alcohol without accusing the teen.
Years ago, Rocco and I attended an elementary school meeting on self esteem and were told: “Your child has a big advantage in their life because you cared enough to attend this meeting.”
Although your son or daughter may be in a “bad place” right now they have a “big advantage” in their life because you cared enough to attend a PSST meeting.
More than likely your teenager will not grasp the “big advantage” concept. In all probability they will resent that you go to “those meetings where you are misled by that crazy dude.” Or as our kids at Gateway Family Night put it so well "You guys belong to that PSST Cult!"
NEVERTHELESS they are in a better place because you do care enough to try to save ypur child's life.
Remember our two favorite words NEVERTHELESS and REGARDLESS. Try to get BUT totally out of your vocabulary. Or as one of my favorite people loves to always remind me “Everything you say after the word BUT is BS.”
We all would like to sincerely thank Trinity Lutheran Church for the use of their first class facilities to allow PSST to empower parents of out-of-control teenagers. This is a great example of how Trinity Lutheran has been reaching out and serving Wexford and the northern suburbs since 1845.
We look forward to seeing more concerned parents at the next PSST Meeting ~ Saturday, August 21 ~ at the at the Outreach Teen and Family Services located in Mt. Lebanon at 666 Washington Road (There is free parking in the back lot).
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