The 5 Love Languages of Teenagers: The Secret to Increasing Joy and Trust with Your Teen

I first read "The Five Love Languages" for adults and it opened my eyes to a new world. I discovered how the way I was showing love to my husband really wasn't communicating love to him very effectively because MY love language was different than HIS. Then we had a family and my three boys became teenagers and surprise surprise it was a challenge! A friend suggested this book and I immediately was drawn in by it because the concept is the same. How I was trying to communicate love to each one of my three teen and tween boys was not being received how I meant it because their love languages were different than mine. Aargh! That meant I actually had to spend the time learning their love languages and trying to understand them. This was a new idea for me, especially since by then I was a single mom and all I could think about was surviving day to day, not really trying to figure out how each teen boy thought, processed and communicated. Raising young kids I had found to be pretty easy. Teens were another ballgame altogether! Fortunately this book drew the idea of the teenage love languages together for me very easily, and at least helped put me on the right track. I started talking to each of my boys about how they thought and communicated, what they liked and didn't, and we even did the teen love language test together! They thought it was stupid, but we laughed about it and it was helpful! The five languages are, of course, the same as for adults: words of affirmation, physical touch, gifts, acts of service and quality time. I learnt that one of my sons absolutely did not like to be touched but valued when I did things for him (acts of service). I learnt that another really valued quality time even if we didn't talk much. A third needed words of affirmation and negative words tore him apart. Amazing - my languages are words of affirmation and gifts, so there was a lot of miscommunication going on! We started to establish some family rules, and, amazingly, things began to change. I wrote in another review about teenage boundaries that my oldest two teenagers just left home this year. One started college last Fall and the other graduated HS this spring and started a full-time job for a year before he goes to college. They have grown into amazing young adults, and every time I see them they seem to be maturing more. Not everything I did was wrong - something was right, and we're STILL communicating, which is incredible and definitely thanks in part to this book! My youngest son, almost 16, is in full-blown teen years and I'm about to read this book again. Plus I now have two teenage stepdaughters and I've seen that there's a chapter here for blended families which is going to be absolutely invaluable. In short, this is an incredible book and well worth the investment of time and money. Learning to communicate with your teens reaps rewards not only during the younger teenage years, but on through their young adulthood and I'm sure well into the future. In my opinion, it's fairly easy to raise young children, but teenagers are the greatest challenge ever presented to the modern parent given everything we and they face today. This book will help you navigate those years and help you stay in touch with the greatest gift you have been given - your kids!

I bought this book many years ago and have purchased it as gifts for all sorts of people. Friends, family, acquaintances--anyone who was having issues with partners, kids, parents, etc. This book is full of tools to better understand the person you seek to better your relationship with, and perhaps also to better your own understanding of yourself. The Five Love Languages sets up 5 different ways that people give and receive love. We all appreciate all 5 of these languages, but usually we speak loudest in one or two of them (mine are physical touch and quality time). If we can understand the languages that our partner speaks, then we can better "speak" our love to them. This is not a book for you to "listen" better, it is one to help you "speak" better. Sure, it helps you to understand your partner's language, and maybe appreciate that they are showing you love when they wash the car (acts of service), but it is more about YOU learning to perform acts of service for your partner, because that is the language that he/she speaks. It also teaches your partner to "speak" YOUR language to you. If your partner is an "acts of service" guy, but you are a "physical touch" girl, he needs to learn how to show you he loves YOU by touching you--because that's what you speak.) There are other books that go with this (like one for Teens) that are incredibly helpful, too. I highly recommend all of the Love Language books in the series. You can't lose!

This is a great book to read if you have a teenager or pre-teen since those hormones and tendencies are already there. My teenager had to do a class that included this book and was able to articulate their love languages. I read this book and understand better now what translates to love for a child may not be the same thing as a parent, especially priority-wise. Example - Affection may be love language to the parent, but the teenager may prefer positive encouragement or affirmations versus hugs and pats. I think it's a great way to bridge the gap and love on your teenagers. Teenagers can be difficult, as I know personally, but they especially need to be loved on by their families in the ways they will accept it (read the book) since they are going through tremendous growth, hormone bursts, self-esteem and identity issues and more to get them through it. This book is an easy read and well worth it if you are looking to better communicate and bond with your teenager, making sure their needs are met. You can also share your needs with them as well so they understand and respect that, i.e. if a parent has a tendency to want to hug and the teen isn't overly fond of it, there can be a compromise between them. :)

I have read the love languages for kids when my child was about 7 and I found it very helpful and gave me a very different perspective on handling issues that would come up. I purchased this book, more out of curiosity as I don’t have a difficult relationship with my teen but I found it very eye opening. It not only helped me realized things about my own childhood but also a better way to handle issues with my teen. I think this book is good for anyone who wants a closer relationship with their teen, anyone having trouble parenting their teen or anyone who simply wants to be the best parent they can be. This book could be the thing to change your perspective and your relationship with your teen. Don’t hope you and your child can have a good relationship when they are an adult. Be proactive and have one now so that when they do go off to college, they do want to come back home.

Its a must for parents with teens at home. This book will definitely help in understanding them better.

Highly, highly recommend this book to be read by parents of all teenagers . It will help you understand the emotions they are going through and how to keep everyone happy.

Ce livra a changé mon coeur et équipé ma famille. Son application m'a transformée et a rapidement aussi transformé les comportements dangeureux de ma grande fille qui entame son adolescence. Cela m'a redonné espoir en tamt que mère pour réussir à traverser les défis paniquants de l'adolescence en restant unie avec ma fille et ma fille unie avec nos valeurs. Un investissement temps et argent mille fois récompensé selon moi quand on récolte les fruits d'une vie sur nos propres enfants. Merci pour tout, sincèrement.

Very interesting

Ich dachte, so viele gute Bewertungen könnten nicht irren, aber weit gefehlt. Mein Moment des inneren Erbrechens war eingeläutet bei der Schilderung, wie ein mittelalter Mann (aka der Schriftsteller) seiner Tochter in einem besonderen Moment eine Kette mit einem Schlüssel gibt um ihr dann schwülstig auszudeutschen, sie möge gefälligst ihre Reinheit und Keuschheit für sich bewahren. Richtig unerträglich wurde es dann ca. ab Höhe immer wiederkehrender, mit voller Überzeugung vorgetragener religiöser Grundsätze. Wenn ich eine Bibel will oder ein Buch, das reaktionären Mist verzapft, ziehe ich nach Bayern. ach ne, sorry, da wohn ich schon. Man sieht: es ist also wirklich ennervierend.