The Marin Healthy Youth Partnerships collaborated with the Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD) Wellness during the first “Let’s Talk” Zoom event of the year on Wednesday, Feb. 5, titled “Parenting to Support Our Teens.” The event featured guest speakers Tryna Rymland, a certified parenting coach, and Ada Perlsons, a Tamalpais High School junior and Student Ambassador for Raising the Bar, a program that focuses on changing social norms around alcohol. 
Rymland opened her presentation by discussing the physiological development of the brain and how that affects teenage behavior.
“The front of our brain responsible for logic and thinking and reasoning is the last part of the brain to mature,” Rymland said.
Rymland focused her presentation on how to help parents’ relationships with their teens and also made it clear to parents that teens are, generally, not purposefully giving parents a hard time.
“Your kid is not giving you a hard time. They are having a hard time,” Rymland said.
She helped parents who attended the webinar reframe their thoughts about their teen with the acronym: Quit Taking It Personally (QTIP).
The presentation also emphasized how to help teens make better decisions about substance abuse.
“As parents, we should not shy away from having open conversations with our kids about difficult topics and it should be happening early and often,” Rymland said.
Rymland stressed that as teenagers grow older, parents shouldn’t stop trying to be involved in their lives, but must also try not to control them.
“Connection has to be more important to [the parent] than almost anything else,” Rymland said.
The event ended with a speech by the teen representative, Ada Perlsons, and a question and answer session. Perlsons focused her talk on how parents’ actions affect teens’ behavior, especially their parents’ relationship with substances.
“If kids constantly see stress and alcohol linked together, it creates a message and can make teens think, ‘Oh, this is how adults handle tough emotions,’” Perlsons said.
The next “Let’s Talk” Zoom is about mental health and will take place on May 7.
