An Open Letter to Parents of Muslim Teens

Are you the parent or guardian of Muslim teens?

This must be a scary time for you.

You must spend a lot of time worrying about the potential danger out there for your teens. Yet, you feel powerless with little to no control over what goes on in their lives. You know that things are now much more different from how it used to be when you were growing up, so you need a different game plan.

Here’s what you think:

“He has ear phones plugged in most of the day even when we are together”.

“She’s glued to her phone whenever she’s at home”.

“He seems to be hanging out with a new crowd but won’t talk about who they are”.

“She isn’t allowed on social media yet and she insists she is not on any, but her siblings say she is”.

“His door is locked for long hours”.

“She’s always getting into trouble at school”.

“He’s spending very long hours at his football practice, his coach says not to worry, but I hardly see him studying and interacting with family when home”.

I hear a lot of concerns like these and many more from parents of Muslim teens, and they are well justified.

So, how do you fulfill your role to the maximum best ~ and build a positive, rewarding relationship?

On Empowering Muslim Teens

Dear Parent of Muslim Teen,

Your teen is going through a lot of storm and stress in his/her life. And may feel alone and misunderstood dealing with issues from:

– School to work;
– Deen to lifestyle;
– Friends to family;
– Physical to mental health;
– Cloudy emotions to fun feelings;
– Education to talents/ skills building.

So while you as the parent go through great stress trying to understand and connect with them – they may be feeling as though they have been left out of your life, and it’s not you feeling left out of your teen’s life.

You need to build bridges not barriers.

Why?

Because a healthy and empowering relationship with your teen will give them a firm foundation to grow from confident and reflective teens into confident, proactive and responsible Muslim adults. They certainly will not get it right all the time but at least they will have a positive pillar of support for when they fail, feel fear or get frustrated.

Continue reading here.

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