Eleven ways to let teenagers take healthy, positive risks this summer

If they are not in the habit of going to shops and supermarkets on their own, maybe now is the time to send them on errands. Photograph: Getty Images

What those risks might look like will depend on the level of maturity, personality and circumstances. Parents should be the best judge of that.Give younger teens at least brief tastes of being home alone. Albeit bearing in mind that the official advice from Tusla, the child and family agency, is that children under the age of 14 should not be left home alone “for more than a very short time”, while teenagers over the age of 16 “can be left home alone”.

Don’t constantly track their phone, says psychotherapist Stella O’Malley, as it is very liberating for them to feel a parent does not know where they are. That might sound like irresponsible parenting to you, but she argues that if teenagers have never experienced being free of virtual monitoring until the age of 18, it can be overwhelming for them when they go off to college.

You don’t have to go outdoors for summer challenges. A drama camp, for instance, pushes many a teenager out of their comfort zone, says psychologist Dr Malie Coyne, and provides the risk of failure through the staging of a show.

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