The teenage world can easily confuse love, lust and infatuation and may not believe they still need to learn a lot about life and love and relationships. Lust is simple sexual attraction; infatuation is when you idolize somebody to the point where they take over your entire world; and love is a feeling of mutual feelings of exhilaration, excitement, joy and happiness.

The age when kids begin dating is still the same at about 12 to 14 years; however, the entire dating scenario has changed from our times. Though parents still worry about their kids experimenting with sex, the world today and relationships are much more complicated! Marisa Nightingale of the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy refers to this new sexuality as, “Kids almost seem to be running the bases backwards”. The first step to aiding your child to navigate through love, dating and relationship is to understand how things are.

Teens go out in groups and this opens the window to meet a number of people. It also takes away the strangeness they might feel when alone with a date. What this also does to them is bring them to the herd mentality; so if the group is indulging in something questionable, they are had put to raise their voices. Be sure you talk to your children often about sex, alcohol, drugs and your own expectations. Ask your teenage daughters to think of what they would do if they were alone and not in a group; they need to understand that they need not give in to any kind of peer pressure.

Teens hang out more often in the afternoon right after school when the parents aren’t home. This is the time when they are not supervised and alcohol, drinks and sex can be experimented with. Make sure you have a friendly neighbor who can check on your teenager after school or drop in unexpectedly from work at odd hours to keep a check.

The cell phone is a major worry for parents of teenagers and why….earlier you could get to talk to the boy coming to pick up your daughter as he called on the landline. You could meet and assess and make sure of their whereabouts as well. Today’s dates simply pull up outside the house and call on your teen’s cell phone! Make sure the rule stays, your daughter or son’s friends need to come in to pick you up so you can meet them. In order to make sure your kids are where they tell you they are going to be by asking them to call home by landline. This allows you to confirm their whereabouts through caller ID. News about parties and get togethers are spread through cell phones and you do not have their friend’s numbers or even names! Make sure the phones are switched off at reasonable times every weeknight with may be another extra hour for the weekends. Know phone numbers for their dates and ‘fast’ friends as well.

Remember that kids today are not more matured contrary to belief. Yes, they are more exposed to adult influences and relationships but they need guidance and parental control at each level. Just be there as a firm yet understanding parent to counter each hurt and monitor each ‘love’!