Awareness of Others
Teenagers are often known for being self-centered. As your son grows, he will learn to realize that there are other people who matter when it comes to making decisions. He'll also need to learn to consider others before he opens his mouth.
Developing a sense of what someone else is thinking or feeling is important. It can help your son learn to gauge his reactions and think ahead.
Essential
Try to involve your son in some family decisions. This can be something small, like where to go for dinner, or it can be a larger issue, like planning a family vacation. This lets him know his opinion matters.
The first step is for your son to realize that there are other people who matter. If your son can accurately determine how someone is feeling, he can respond appropriately. If someone is angry, he can examine what is going on and make a decision to help that person work through his or her anger or remove himself from the situation. This can help protect his own feelings as well.
One of the easiest ways to show your son that others are important is to talk about how consideration for others works in your life. You might start by explaining to him a decision you are currently mulling over. Let's say you are trying to plan your vacation. You explain that you need to find a good time to visit your vacation spot, and you also need to ensure your job is covered so your co-workers aren't left high and dry.
Your son should try to put this into practice. He will inevitably have to work in a group for a school project, and this is a good time to point out how his actions or failures to act play a part in the other group members' lives. This can be a very hard lesson for teens to learn. Teens tend to be very self-promoting and unaware of others.
