Stressed Out Teens? 15 Simple Ways Parents Can Help

by Melanie Studer
Stressed out teen?

So, you have a stressed out teen…

Here are some ideas that will  help out a stressed out teen in overwhelming times.


(I first wrote this back in April of 2020. Some things have changed. Some have not. Many kids are able to go to school in some type of in seat hybrid version, some are learning in pods, and some are totally virtual. No matter which way, their lives probably look very different than they did one year ago this time. These tips for checking with your teen’s mental health are possibly more important today than ever.

We had a son struggling with depression -and before Covid he had no problems. Would they have surfaced without this pandemic? Possibly, but we will never know. All I know is that I am proud of how he handled himself, and he worked his way towards his future with help from us, his friends, and a counselor. Please check in with your teens!)

I have reached out to my blogging friends to find the best advice that they have for our stressed out teens today and any other time. Here is the advice that they have shared. *This post may contain affiliate links. My full disclosure policy is here.

Pin for Later!

Stressed out teen|www.parentinghighschoolers.com

Grab a  Survival Chart -full of strategies to try -for your stressed out teen here!

Calming tips for a stressed out teen

Leo Baubata posted his zen habits for calmness. Here are his 7 habits and the link to his article with much more information:

  1. A calm morning ritual
  2. Watch your response when you are stressed
  3. Don’t take things personally
  4. Be grateful
  5. Create stress coping habits
  6. Single task
  7. Reduce noise

If you can encourage your teen to just try one or two of these habits to try, it will go a long way to relieving their stress. I, for one, reduced the noise I was hearing over the past weekend. I did not listen to news. I did not read anything that might stress me out.

I basically took a time out from news for a couple of days. It was wonderful, and I plan on doing this every weekend from now for as long as the current (insert whatever you want!) situation goes on.

For a relaxing bath, here are are some bath bombs for guys and gals.

The news isn’t going anywhere. I was available to my family and friends if something came up, but it really refreshed my soul to tune the world out for a bit.

Have your teen try a time out, even if it’s just for a few hours, they will be glad they did it! This will be a great way to help a stressed out teen.

Here are my friends’ tips for calming your stressed out teens…

Calming Activities by Karen at Nourishing Teens

Sleep For Teen Is So Important by Parenting High Schoolers

Diverting activities that are teen stress relievers

Our teens have a lot of time on their hands even with school, friends, social media, and right now, a world-wide pandemic. Here are a few fun things that might distract them when they have a moment of boredom! Staying busy is good for a stressed out teen, as long as it is balanced with rest and relaxation. Here are my friend’s tips for keeping your teen busy…

18 Killer Podcasts by Nancy at Raising Teens Today

101 Things to Do When You’re Stuck at Home by Nancy at Raising Teens Today

100 Blissful Solutions to Teen Boredom by Shannon at Skip to My Life

5 Things That Your Teen Needs to Know About Their Grandparents by Shannon at Skip to My Life

Things To Do During Quarantine by Loren at LorenKellyCoaching

Easy Ways for Tweens and Teens to Relax by Laurie at Pardon Me, My Crown Slipped

Stressed out teens|www.parentinghighschooelrs.com

Stress management for teens

If a teen has anxiety, it’s a whole other dimension of stress. It is all-consuming, and overpowering. Teens may need outside help. They for sure need for you to know that it is very real to them. More than anything, they need your love and support!

Activities for stressed out teens…

Why Anxiety Can Destroy Your Gen Z Child by Shannon at Skip to My Life

Helping Teens Manage Their Anger by Dana at Parenting in Real Life

Natural Stress Relievers for Teens by Miranda at The Reluctant Cowgirl

School Anxiety

Here are some basic tips to help teens with school stress…

  1. Have a schedule
  2. Use a planner or some sort of calendar
  3. Start big projects early-as in right away!
  4. Create a dedicated work space
  5. Talk to the teacher
  6. Get a tutor
  7. Prioritize work by date due and amount of work that will be needed

Here are my friends’ tips for dealing with school stress…

Helping Kids to Thrive As They Adjust to Distance Learning by Betsy at Betsyjewell.com with Kellyann Rohr  (This is a podcast as well as a blog post.)

Ways That You Can Help Your Teen With Finals (Or School Stress in General!) by Parenting High Schoolers

Model stress management techniques for students

Stress is a factor every day in our teens’ lives. School, work, family, money, dating relationships, the list is endless. We need to model behaviors that are positive for our teens to emulate. We need to practice self-care, so that we can help meet their needs and show that it’s a great stress management tool.

Let’s help our teens to fill their toolboxes with strategies for dealing with stress today and any other time that will be stressful in the future.

Here is a great post on coping with all this as a mom from my friend Miranda at The Reluctant Cowgirl.

Here is a post that I wrote about self-care under the best of times, but is great for now because there are tiny doable things that you can do to have a better day, every day!

Here are some affirmations to get us through these days from my friend Shannon at Skip To My Life

Conversations can help your stressed out teens

We have time now because everyone is at home. The thing is that we should always make time to have conversations. Our teens are only with us for a limited amount of time-the countdown has started for them to leave for college or a job or the military or one of a million things.

Remember to grab your copy of the stress reliever chart here!

Apps That Can Help Your Teen

We know that our kids are probably on their devices too much. But, these are proven to be helpful -nice to know that there are good uses of technology!

Calm -this is a FREE download

Calm Sounds -also FREE

Moshi Kids: Sleep and Mindfulness -again, FREE

Tangle -FREE

Aware -FREE -mindfulness techniques

Spiritual Me -only $1.99, but it has a tracker and many options

Many of these are similar to each other. And, there are so many more. I recommend having your teen try each one to see which features they like, and which one works best. They may like different ones with different options. Who can beat FREE? 

Conversation Can Really Help Your Teen With Stress

Use the time that you have with your kids to have some of these important conversations about making their future a better place to be. Help you teen to have an advantage by discussing important tips that will help them no matter what is going on in the world. 

The Ultimate List of Conversations to Help Your Teen Through High School

5 Easy Ways to Improve Communication With Your Teen

7 Things to Know If You Love a Teenager

Best Year Round Posts for Parenting Teens and Tweens: 50+ Topics!

I would love to stay in touch!

Make sure to visit my Facebook page, and follow me on Pinterest and YouTube where I share lots of helpful info for parents of tweens and teens! And, finally, if you feel like this post was helpful, please share it on your favorite social media platform! Thank you so much!❤️

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Stressed out teen|www.parentinghighschoolers.com

resource library items

Join the Parenting High Schoolers Community!

Membership has its privileges including access to the Parenting High Schooler's Resource Library which includes all of the printables featured in Parenting High Schooler's posts,including the Bible verse cards for seniors, the high school surival kit, the first kitchen checklist and so much more! 

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Hello! My name is Melanie and I love to encourage moms of teens and tweens!

Are you ready to create a stronger, healthier relationship with your teens? Do you want to do all that you can to foster a stronger bond with your family? 

I will give your encouragement to take care of yourself in the midst of this messy place that we call life. I’d like to help you with some strategies to make things a little bit easier.

Let me help you to parent more confidently. With more love. With more connection.

10 Comments

  1. I think this is all very good advice. The more specific the better. Pinning.

    Reply
    • Thank you! It is such an important topic for us to think about. Our teens need so much support.

      Reply
  2. Even before the pandemic, it seems teens and tweens were experiencing higher levels of stress and depression than ever before. Current events have ramped that up. You have compiled an excellent resource guide – I’m tweeting this.

    Reply
    • Thank you, and I agree! Our teens are stressed under the best of circumstances. Thank you for sharing:)

      Reply
  3. Great ideas. Some events exacerbate what in normal times would just be growing pains. As a parent, every high school and college
    experience for my three was different. One sailed through. One had a very difficult time adjusting. One just totally did his own thing. BOTTOM LINE, I knew them, they are my children and I could have predicted how things would go.

    Reply
    • Thanks, and I agree with the exacerbation. Isn’t it amazing how different all of our kids can be?

      Reply
    • I hope that it helps parents out there with both their teen’s stress and their own!
      It helped me when I wrote this post.

      Reply
  4. This is very important and very close to my heart. My youngest loved high school and after a series of events, graduating, etc my then 17-year-old daughter became so stressed out that she attempted suicide. The child had never given us a single reason to ever worry about her. She was the kid that you would least expect it. She never did drugs, got in trouble, and made good grades all while working part-time after school and on weekends. There is nothing worse than getting a phone call when you are out of town telling you that your child was being airlifted to a hospital because her heart keeps stopping. She’s 30 now and I still cry about it.

    Reply
    • I have thought of you often the past couple of days thinking about what to say. First, thank you for sharing your story. I think parents underestimate their influence on their teens. After being in the middle school classroom the past couple of years, I can promise all parents that their tweens and teens are desperate for attention and support.

      I cannot imagine your stress and pain when all that happened to you, but so encouraging for parents to hear your story. Thank you again for sharing.

      Reply

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