14 July 2014 - QA 7

Gurudev, how to bring children who oppose the path onto the path.

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar:

You know, a parent cannot influence their teenagers, but they can influence the friends of their children. So, before you become a good mother or a good father, you have to become a good uncle or aunt.
The friends of your children will have more respect for you, and will listen to you. So tell your daughter or your son to bring all their friends home, and then you talk to them separately. You can influence them, and through them you can influence your children.

It is like, if there is a mango tree in the garden and you want a mango, you will throw a stone at the branch so that the mango falls, but you will not hit the mango directly.
That is the indirect way in which you have to deal with your teenagers. Got it?