1.) What are your friends’ dating relationships like? What are the words that your friends use for dating? What is the difference in these terms and how long do your peers stay together? Do they make a commitment to each other? Are there certain things that boys want that girls don’t? Are there things girls want in these relationships that boys don’t want?
ACTIONS & TALKING POINTS:
- Compare their notions about the roles of males and females.
- Mutual respect should be a key part of any relationship.
2.) What are some examples of someone saying or doing something that crosses your personal boundaries? Everyone has a right to communicate how they want to be treated by others. What can you say and do to communicate your personal boundaries? When does playing or teasing become too much and is no longer fun?
ACTIONS & TALKING POINTS
- Personal Boundaries help define your expectations about how you want to be treated in a respectful, non-threatening and comfortable way on your own terms.
- Everyone has a right to communicate how they want to be treated by others.
- Communicating Boundaries includes telling others your expectations and expressing when your boundaries have been crossed.
- Everyone has different personal boundaries and it’s important to treat a person how they want to be treated.
3.) All relationships are unique. But what do you expect from someone you would go out with? What do you think makes a relationship healthy? What do you think healthy relationships look like, feel like, sound like?
ACTIONS & TALKING POINTS
- In a healthy relationship there should be respect, safety, support, individuality, fairness and equality, acceptance, honesty, and trust, communication and fun.
- Encourage emotional awareness – the ability to recognize moment to moment emotional feelings and to express all feelings (good and bad) appropriately.
4.) Have you ever seen any kind of abusive behavior between two people who are going out?
ACTIONS & TALKING POINTS
- Compare your teenager’s definition of ‘abusive behaviors’ or ‘violence’ to that of your own.
- Look at warning signs from the potential abuser. Don’t look the other way if you see warning signs in your child. Reach out to help him/her recognize potentially unhealthy or abusive behaviors.
