A Fun Activity to Do With Your Teen
by: Nancy Aziz
Want to teach your teen about boundaries? Here’s a great and fun way to do it!
Tools needed:a
1. A bottle of bubbles
2. Large sheet of poster paper
3. 4 different colored markers
Make sure your teen is in a good, attentive mood, is not distracted by siblings, and tell him/her that you’d like to hear their thoughts on a topic. If they agree, begin by blowing a bubble, and then asking your teen to blow the largest bubble they can. Give them a chance to try several times and take time to laugh together.
Discussion Points:
1. Say: We all have imaginary bubbles around us, and we have different-sized-bubbles for different people. Imagine you’re on a public bus, microbus, or metro. What size bubble would you ideally prefer to have around you (unless of course you’re crammed in J)? Have your teen stand on the poster paper, hand them a marker and have them draw a bubble around their feet.
2. Now imagine that you’re with your classmates, what size bubble would you draw? Have your teen draw that bubble using a different colored marker.
3. Now imagine you’re with your best friend (BFF), what size bubble would you draw? Have your teen draw the bubble using a third marker.
4. And finally, imagine that you’re with the girl/guy you have a crush on… do you even want to draw a bubble? Your emotions might not want to, so why bother? I mean you’ve finally found the girl/guy of your dreams, so why draw a bubble with your own hands?
5. What would happen if you didn’t draw a bubble with your crush? Ask them to share their thoughts openly and don’t give any advice at this point. Just hear them out.
6. Guide the discussion based on their response to the previous point. Say: God has created us with a natural desire towards the opposite sex, we long to be with our crush, we long to feel loved by them, both emotionally and physically. That’s why marriage is so wonderful because you get to be with the person you love and enjoy each other for the rest of your lives. But what happens when we don’t have boundaries with our crush as teens? We’ll probably go as far as we can, because we’re “in love”!
7. Discuss how destructive experimenting with premarital physical closeness and sexuality could be, both spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
8. Ask: Based on our discussion, where you would now draw the bubble with your crush? Have your teen draw the bubble using the fourth marker.
9. Ask: Did you draw this bubble based on your emotions? The answer will most likely be “no.”
Ask: Then based on what? The answer should be, “my mind.”
10. Discuss the importance of letting your mind lead, not your emotions or actions. You can draw a simple diagram of a train with three carts and ask your teen which cart should be labeled mind, emotions, actions. Discuss the importance of having the mind in cart 1 (the driver), the emotions in cart 2, and the actions in cart 3.
11. Finally, allow your teen to ask any questions they may have.
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