If you’ve ever tried to talk to your teen about their health, you know it can feel like pulling teeth. You ask how school’s going or whether they’re sleeping enough, and you get the classic one-word answers: “Fine.” “Good.” “I don’t know.”

As a parent, you want your teenager to be healthy and honest about what’s really happening — physically and emotionally. But adolescence is a unique season of change. Teens crave independence, yet they also need guidance. They want privacy, but they still rely on adults for structure and safety.

It starts like this:

You ask your teen why they didn’t turn in their assignment. They say, “It was stupid. The teacher didn’t even explain it right.”
You want to scream. You know this is irrational. You know they’re making excuses. And your adult brain wants to leap in, correct them, and lay down the law.

But here’s the secret no one told us before we became parents of teenagers:

You don’t have to agree with them to validate them.

Validation isn’t approval. It’s acknowledgment. It’s saying, “I see where you’re coming from.”
And for a teenager feeling misunderstood, invalidated, or constantly “talked at,” that one small shift can change everything.