I’m a Grandmother Parenting a Teen Again; I Don’t Know What To Do

I'm a grandmother, newly raising my teen grandson because my son is not capable of it right now. Feel like I don't know how to parent anymore. Any advice on social media rules? This generation? Uh, uh, the generational norms? I, I would say to you, welcome to the world, whether you're a grandparent or, or a, you know, me, myself, um, it's not generational because I didn't have the technology that my children have. So whether you're a grandparent or someone my age, I mean, I am a grandparent now. I've got, uh, I got three grandchildren and one that's cooking. And, uh, so, so yes, I, but I'll, if, I mean, if I could, I'll show you a picture of my oldest granddaughter, uh, and she's playing on the iPad, man. They start early, right? So, so it's a good question. The reality is, is if you wanna be educated, the, the book that I think is really helpful is iGen. It might scare you as much as, as anything, but it will inform you and help you understand what our children are experiencing. The next thing I would say is knowledge is power. And that's why I recommend books that the class that was just put in the chat. But I would also suggest that as you interact with your grandson, that it's actually your relationship that might have the most powerful impact on his life. It would be easy to delegate it to devices. It's not hard to say, here's a device, watch a show, watch this, do this, do that. But just as an example, you've been given a tremendous responsibility. And it's hard to do. I mean, I'm not the parent. I am, I was when I was younger, when I had more energy. Uh, I can't imagine as I get older being able to raise one of my grandchildren. I, I, I just wanna acknowledge that. I know that's not easy. So I'd want to just let you know that it's not easy what you're doing. But what I also know is that you have a capacity to influence this child in ways that will influence him for generations and your grandchildren and your great-grandchildren, and your great-great-grandchildren, because he can call you blessed if you create the kind of an environment where he feels loved, supported. So it's simple things. You know, the simple things, and, and, and you do know, right? Children love food. They love a place to just sit and, and talk and then ask questions and be curious. Again, I don't know necessarily the age, but what we know is children at a certain age, they are curious and they ask a lot of questions. So if you don't know the questions, here's this cheat sheet. Go to chat GPT and type in the question chat. GPT will help you answer their questions. Now, I'm not, I'm not actually joking with that, right? You're teaching your child how to get information and also doing it together, spending time communicating in ways they will thrive in an environment that's safe. Again, all human connection is based upon safety. We don't connect without safety. Once we've created safety, it's, it's the conversations. It's, I I mean, it's simple things that you've, you learned to do when you were probably a child. Eating meals together, spending time, just having conversations, going on walks, helping them develop social skills by through conversations, having play dates, finding somebody who is their age and talking with that parent and having them create play dates, whatever, if you, whatever the age they are, having them experience those types of things. Now, I don't know the age here, so I'm assuming it's younger, but if it's not younger and it's like 10, 11, 12, they still need friends. They still need connection, getting to know their friends, having a pizza party at your place, right? These are all things that you can do and getting your community involved. Uh, there are great programs. Big, uh, big, uh, what's that Boys town, uh, where they have girl, boys and girls that come in and mentor. You know, uh, there's opportunities to get good mentors that can be a little bit older if, if, if you feel comfortable with that. But I guess my point is, is find as many resources get involved and, and the fact that you're asking the question tells me that you care and we are caring will go a long way. Just let that shine. 'cause that's, that's, that's what they need.