This week in the “Shed” is our tool of the week – Scott Schimmel. Our first return guest in Toolshed History!

Parenting Teens Better by Asking Yourself the Hard Questions with Scott Schimmel

Parenting Teens Better by Asking Yourself the Hard QuestionsScott is the Founder, President, and Chief Guide at The YouSchool. In this episode we discuss “Parenting Healthy Teens”, specifically ways and intentional habits we can create in our relationships that affect their development into mature adulthood. The Youschool is about to host a “back to school” parent equipping event headlining author & renowned speaker Bob Goff. We take a peek into what a parent workshop looks like and why they’re so important. http://www.theyouschool.com/backtoschool/

After spending over ten years in a non-profit helping college students become world changers, Scott is deeply aware of the challenges students face when stepping into the professional world. This is why he’s invested his time guiding young people. Outside of YouSchool, Scott is an avid reader, speaker, writer, and golf fiend—and his latest challenge is learning how to coach Little League baseball. His wife and three children keep him anchored. Connect with him on LinkedIn or email.

Within the conversation around parenting; Scott and Tim discuss the dynamics that often occur between parents and their teenagers. As a reflection on the prior episode “Teen Panel” we discuss a few specific actions parents can take to develop trust and development in their teens. All of this starts with the parents beginning to lead themselves and take ownership of their own life journey and answering core questions for themselves such as;

  • What’s my purpose?
  • Where do I belong?
  • What great story could I tell with my life?
  • Who will journey with me?

Additionally we discussed some practical ways parents can create other mentoring relationships for their children and how impactful those relationships can be on their development into adulthood as well as helping them answer questions about identity, purpose and contribution.

The final piece of the conversation was the importance of parent’s clearly articulating the reasons why they do what they do. In general but also as it pertains to relationships with their children it is highly important for parents to share at times why & how they make decisions so children can begin to see what motivates their parents and how they think about problems, solutions, etc. Often times parents wrongly assume their children know why they do what they do, or why they discipline, celebrate, etc. the way they do but sadly many kids only guess or assume they know why their parents do what they do. This is an easy area for improvement in all relationships for everyday people like us.

Additionally, YouSchool also has an amazing blog that consistently publishes outstanding resources, articles, and tools.

This episode is loaded with tools we hope equip you to build stronger relationships. Hope you enjoy!