Bridging the Parent and Teen Gap

I like to think of culture as the “soup” our children and teens swim and marinate in everyday. To know kids we must regularly lift the lid on the soup pot to see what’s in the mix. Take one look, and you’ll see the recipe looks almost nothing like the soup we swam in during our adolescent years. The fact that the soup has changed means that there’s a cultural-generational gap between teenagers and their parents. But unlike the generational gap of the 1960’s, the older and younger generations aren’t standing on opposite sides of today’s divide with no real desire to come together. The good news is that today’s cultural-generational gap is one that both sides – young and old alike – increasingly want to close. Our children and teens desperately want and need parents and other adults who will cross the divide by getting to know and understand the cultural soup of their kids. Then, we can begin to help them swim through the soup to make good choices that reflect God’s will and God’s way for their lives.