Pesach With Your Teens Home: How To Stay Sane, Safe, and Aware

Now that Purim has passed, there is one thing on everyone’s mind: Pesach. Whether you’re busy cleaning or packing, if you have adolescent or teenage children, one thing is certain: Pesach means an extended school vacation when your child will be home for anywhere from two to four weeks.

Having teenage children home presents unique challenges. Teenage years are when many mental health issues surface, and if your child attends an out-of-town school, this may be the first time in six months or more that you are seeing them. Even if you speak regularly with your child, there is a lot you might not be able to pick up over the phone—things that are much clearer when you see them in person.

With this in mind, A Drop of Light, in collaboration with MASK, The Long Short Road, and Nevonim, has created a pre-Pesach course for parents of teens, titled “Pesach with Your Teens Home: How to Stay Sane, Safe, & Aware.” The goal of this course is to empower parents—whether or not their child has a mental health diagnosis—to recognize, discuss, and address signs of mental health struggles in a sensitive, caring, and constructive way that benefits both the child and the parent.

Recognizing that for many parents this is a sensitive and private topic, the course will be hosted as a Zoom Webinar, so that only the presenters will have cameras and microphones. The sessions will also be recorded and emailed to anyone who signs up for the course. And did we mention the course is free of charge?

The presenters are Rabbi Bentzion Twerski, PhD, and Leigh Ioffe, both of whom have extensive knowledge and training in this field. Rabbi Twerski has been running a weekly parenting support group through MASK for over 25 years, and Mrs. Ioffe is a crisis management specialist, educator, and the founder and director of The Long Short Road.

The course will, b’ezras Hashem, take place next week:

Monday, Chof Daled Adar, 12:00-1:00 pm EST: Rabbi Twerski’s class, titled “Noticing Your Teen’s Struggles and How to Be There”
Wednesday, Chof Vav Adar, 8:00-9:30 pm EST: Mrs. Ioffe’s class, titled “Learn to Foster Safe Conversations and Recognize Signs of Suicide”

For more information and to sign up, please visit: https://www.preventfrumsuicide.org/pesach.html

Together, we can make a difference and save lives.