{"id":11370,"date":"2026-08-17T05:31:03","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=11370"},"modified":"2026-08-17T05:31:05","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:31:05","slug":"mom-says-pretend-play-is-the-secret-to-getting-her-angsty-teen-to-open-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/?p=11370","title":{"rendered":"Mom says pretend play is the \u2018secret\u2019 to getting her angsty teen to open up"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201cI revived a fun way to defuse the teen-angst vibe and connect to our girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Psychologists say one of the best ways to get a child to open up is not to ask direct questions, which may put them on their heels, but to play a game with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResearch demonstrates that parent and child brains \u2018sync up\u2019 during play and that they literally become \u2018on the same wavelength\u2019 as they play,\u201d Robyn Koslowitz, PhD, writes at Psychology Today. \u201cThis makes it much easier for the child to feel comfortable expressing their feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Research shows that play brings young children and parents together. Alyson, a mom who works in sports marketing, says it\u2019s a total game-changer\u2014and \u201cthe secret\u201d\u2014to getting her angsty 14-year-old daughter to share what\u2019s really happening in her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI revived a fun way to defuse the teen-angst vibe and connect to our girls,\u201d Alyson writes in a TikTok post. \u201cUsed it when my kids were little simply to entertain and now use it to joke her out of the teen-funk we all know and love.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Mom says playing with her teenage daughter helps her open up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Alyson realized the power of play when her daughter had a total meltdown over not having anything to wear on Christmas Eve. So, she took on the role of a high-end fashion shopkeeper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI brought her into my closet, and I did this whole big, \u2018Oh, are you shopping with us today? Please, let me get you a treat,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd I gave her a chocolate, and I gave her a beautiful flute of apple cider or something. And I was like, \u2018Let me show you some pieces. I have a few pieces to show you today.\u2019 And her attitude went from \u2018I hate my life, I don\u2019t like what I\u2019m wearing\u2019 to, like, \u2018Oh, this is kind of fun.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"teen,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The same technique worked when Alyson pretended to take her daughter to a fancy spa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will go upstairs now, and I will blow out her hair, and she will spill the tea, just like you do in the salon,\u201d she says. \u201cSo while she\u2019s snacking and noshing and feeling like she\u2019s being pampered and taken care of, we can have an interaction that\u2019s kinder, softer, gentler than our typical, like, \u2018Oh my God, you\u2019re so annoying. Why do you keep asking me these questions?\u2019 kind of situation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commenters loved Alyson\u2019s method for getting her daughter to talk<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"teen,<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese are the things that when she gets older, she will look back and think, my mom didn\u2019t just love me, she also liked me,\u201d a commenter writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think they still like to \u2018play\u2019 and nobody realizes it, it just has to fit their age! This makes so much sense,\u201d another adds. \u201cWhen I was her age, I had much younger siblings, and as a teenager, I loved getting to still do \u2018kid stuff\u2019 with them! So this is kind of connecting the dots for me.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Teenagers want to be close to their parents, but they\u2019re also at a stage where they need to find independence, which can put them in a real bind. In her video, Alyson shows that with a little extra effort and cleverness, parents can break down barriers and make a meaningful connection with their teens.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cI revived a fun way to defuse the teen-angst vibe and connect to our girls.\u201d Psychologists say one of the best ways to get a child to open up<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11371,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/778767438_1479630063925293_951230517676862231_n.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11370"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11372,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11370\/revisions\/11372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/humorsidehub.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}