Ep.282: Teen Parenting: Are You Fueling the Drama or Easing the Tension?
Parenting Great Kids with Dr. Meg Meeker
Dr. Meg Meeker
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2025
⏱️ 37 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Is your response to your teen’s emotions helping—or hurting—the situation? In this eye-opening episode, Dr. Meg Meeker sits down with Sheri Gazitt, teen life coach and founder of Teen Wise, to explore how parents unintentionally contribute to the emotional “drama” of adolescence—and what to do instead.
Together, they unpack the real reasons teens act out, how parents can shift from reacting to responding, and why connection—not control—is the foundation of a healthy parent-teen relationship.
In this episode, we cover:
- Are you reacting or responding? How to tell the difference
- Why emotional regulation starts with you, not your teen
- The impact of post-COVID loneliness on teen behavior
- Friendship drama and social conflict—why it’s normal and how to guide without rescuing
- How to talk about social media without making your teen defensive
- Rebuilding trust after big blow-ups or boundary-crossing
- Small daily practices to ease tension and build emotional safety
About Sheri Gazitt
Sheri Gazitt is a certified teen life coach, parenting educator, and founder of Teen Wise, an organization dedicated to empowering teens and supporting parents through the challenges of adolescence. With a background in psychology and counseling, Sheri specializes in emotional resilience, social confidence, and helping families navigate the often turbulent teen years with compassion and clarity. She also hosts workshops and speaks nationally on teen mental health, friendship dynamics, and parent-teen communication.
Resources & Links:
- Learn more about Sheri Gazitt and Teen Wise → https://www.teenwiseseattle.com
- Coaching and parenting tools with Dr. Meg Meeker → https://meekerparenting.com
- Join Dr. Meg’s community → https://linktr.ee/meekerparenting
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | On today's episode of Parenting Great Kids. |
| 0:04.0 | Raising teens isn't easy. |
| 0:06.6 | I'm thinking of one client in particular who came in and had this pattern of losing the friendships out of the groups over and over. |
| 0:14.1 | And I said, let's look at it. |
| 0:15.7 | Let's see if there's something that you're doing. |
| 0:18.2 | This is Parenting Great Kids with Dr. Meg Meeker. |
| 0:25.3 | Today my guest is Sherry Gazit, founder of Teen-Wise, an organization dedicated to supporting |
| 0:31.8 | teens, twins, and parents for the ups and downs of adolescents. Sherry, thanks so much for joining me today. |
| 0:40.0 | I'm so glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me. I can't wait to dive in. |
| 0:44.4 | You know, teens are fun. I like teens. I know you like teens. But a lot of parents and teachers |
| 0:50.0 | just don't like teenagers. You know, when you hear somebody talking about a teenager, chances are |
| 0:56.3 | that you're going to hear a lot of negative talk, and I personally don't like that. But a lot of |
| 1:02.1 | parents worry about their teenagers. They're worried that they're going to pull away from them. |
| 1:07.0 | So before that happens, how can parents foster a strong connection with their teens? |
| 1:14.3 | Well, one of the things we have to keep in mind is that our relationship with our teens is constantly changing. |
| 1:20.4 | So we have to adapt to that and create almost every day a new relationship with this human being that's in front of us because |
| 1:28.6 | they're different and they're changing dramatically from week to week. So we have to keep that in mind. |
| 1:34.3 | The other piece is that we have to, as they get older, we have to look at parenting as a |
| 1:38.9 | collaboration versus control. And when our kids feel that collaboration, then they really want to stay connected |
| 1:46.4 | so they can get support, so they can talk about things. It's the control that really pushes them away. |
| 1:52.2 | Yeah. Well, of course, you know, teens are still teens and they're not fully, their brain isn't |
| 1:59.5 | fully developed. |
... |
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