Dealing with teenagers is nothing short of exhausting. They’re often short, uninterested in family activities, and preoccupied with vapid intrapersonal issues like drama. Shopping for teen boys can be tough, too.
Although every teenager, parent, and living situation is different, these five tips will make shopping for your teenager loads easier. Good luck!
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Teens Think Money Grows on Trees
One of the most effective means of saving money is to limit what you’re willing to spend as a family at the grocery store. You can routinely create tasty meals that the whole family loves from even the most affordable ingredients.
Train your teen not to love expensive foods. Keep in mind that processed foods are generally more costly than their counterparts.
You Can’t Win Them All
You’ve heard the saying “pick your battles” dozens of times before, if not hundreds. It’s a good bit of advice and applies to countless situations.
Picking your battles most definitely applies to deal with kids.
Let’s say you ask your teen to write down a list of things he wants from the grocery store. Assume that, in typical teen fashion, he fails to write down a single item on the list. Is it a good idea for you to discipline him by not bringing home any food you know he likes or doing something else?
It depends. You should first ask yourself if this is a battle worth fighting. Not disciplining your son in this situation or not even requiring him to specify what groceries he’d like will help you reserve the ability to make a more significant impact in future “battles.”
Implement Rules
One of the best ways to build trust with teens is to allow them to have freedom when shopping for things. You shouldn’t allow your son to buy super expensive designer clothes that are way out of your budget or to let him select clothes that will violate school dress codes.
However, outside of these two limitations, letting your teen go shopping without a parent hovering over him at all times is a great way to build rapport between you two. It’s also an excellent way to have him listen to you when establishing other rules or disciplining other issues.
Donating Labor Can Help Ground Teens
Teens are all about the hottest trends – at least most of them are. There are a few ways to get young people from wanting the hottest trends, which are often expensive.
Require your teen to volunteer at a homeless shelter or Goodwill that might help your son understand that hot trends aren’t what’s most important.
Read More: Useful Present For The 18th Birthday
Want or Need?
Your teen almost certainly understands the difference between wants and needs. However, whether shopping with your money or his own, he’s probably notorious for buying wants before needs. Even if he’s not notorious, per se, he’s probably made that mistake at least once before.
Taking inventory of things like clothes before shopping can help establish needs.
One way to incentivize your son to work hard is to take this inventory before summer and meet the goals you make for him before school starts back. The more goals he meets, the more “wants” he can purchase in terms of school clothes.
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