10 ideas for bonding with your teenage daughter?

We all want to be close to our children. However, they seem to push away once they reach a certain age. Suddenly, they don’t want to hug you in public anymore. When you start to notice this happening between you and your daughter, you’re probably going to be desperate to feel that connection again.

As your child gets older, you’re not losing a connection. You simply have to find new ways to connect. Your daughter is growing into a young lady, and her interests are growing. You do your best to pay attention to those new interests, but how are you supposed to know when they barely talk to you any more? 

When you are looking for gifts for your daughter, it helps if you have a bond with her. It helps make the gift that much more special, and it’ll connect you. Here are 10 great ways for you and your daughter to bond. 

1. Go on a Vacation
Teenagers are eager to spread their wings any way they can. Support them and be a part of their growth by taking a trip to explore another part of the country or the world together. 
A trip will leave memories for a very long time. Don’t you want to be a part of those memories? Let your daughter pick an activity or two that they will enjoy. This will show her that you want her to have a good time, and you want to do things that she wants to do with her.

If she’s open to doing something you want to do, you can share each other’s interests in a new location. 
If possible, go on the trip alone. Otherwise, be sure to spend a moment alone with just your daughter on the trip. Alone time will help the two of you bond even more. 

2. Volunteer Together
Many of us are much luckier in life than others. It’s important for teenagers to see how good they have it. It’s also good for them to see you giving back. That makes volunteering a great way to bond with your daughter.
Find a cause that you both care about. When two people have a higher cause to band together, it can help increase their bond. It will get you to talk about something near and dear to your hearts. It will also allow you to see a very kind side to each other.

If you have differing views on an opinion, don’t let that prohibit you from working together. Instead, show your support by working together on her side of a cause. 
If your teen doesn’t express a particular concern, try volunteering at the soup kitchen or Make a Wish to start. You may introduce her to charity and find out she likes it. It could also give you something to do together regularly.

3. Have Dinner Together Every Night
There really is something to be said for family dinner. It gets the entire family together every night. Having face time together throughout the day will help you feel bonded. 
During the week, you should all be expected to come home for family dinner except for a couple of exceptions. This includes you! If you expect the children to come home for dinner at a certain time, you should show an example. 

If you’re relatively talented in the kitchen, bond together even more by teaching your daughter how to cook. This gives you even more time with her, and you’ll be working as a team. Plus, you get to teach her a valuable life skill that she will take with her when she has her own house and her own daughter. It can also be a great way to pass down family traditions you may have from your mother and grandmother. 
Having clear roles about who will clean up after dinner every day also helps teach your children how to pick up after themselves. 

4. Workout Together
Obesity is an epidemic in our country. It’s important to stay healthy ourselves while also showing our children the importance of working out. Join a gym as a family and go with your daughter a couple of times a week. Going with your daughter is a way to make yourself go to the gym yourself. Plus, it will encourage her to workout regularly. This will her increase her health and self-esteem. It will also train her to exercise regularly once she leaves home. 

Join a class together. There are aerobics classes, yoga classes, step classes, self-defense classes, dance classes, and many more may all be offered by your gym. Find one that you and your daughter find interesting and sign up! If you aren’t a fan of the classes, look for a sport to play together. You can play tennis, basketball, baseball, or whatever you’d like as long as you do it together. 

If weight happens to be a sensitive topic for your daughter, it might be a better idea to try another way of bonding unless she is extremely receptive to the idea. You don’t want to exasperate any issues that she may have with her weight. However, you can always suggest the idea in a gentle way. 

5. Have a Sleep-over
Plan a mom and daughter night where the two of you get into your pajamas and put on a chick flick. This is an especially good idea if your daughter is the girly-girl type. The two of you can do facials, paint your nails, and go over new hair styles. You can even set up a mini spa in your house. 

Of course, those aren’t the only things you can do at a slumber party. Who says you can’t watch a horror movie and toilet paper a friend instead? Do whatever the two of you want to do. The point is for the two of you to bond doing the things that the two of you like to do together.

Everyone knows that a teenager would rather have her friends over for a sleepover than her mom. To keep her happy, you might even want to allow her to have a couple of friends over. Do some of the activities with them before allowing them to have some time alone. You get to spend a lot of time with her and her friends while still giving them space, keeping her happy. 

6. Go to concerts together
Everyone seems to think that the music of the younger generation sucks, but it’s not necessarily true. Be open to listening to music with your daughter. Listen to what she likes. Hopefully, you’ll find a band or two that you like as well. If you like a band together, it gives you the perfect opportunity to go see them. 

Feel free to show your daughter your favorite musicians, too. It’s a fantastic thing to teach the younger generation about music they haven’t heard of yet. It is 2019, though, where people have access to music from all eras. You might actually be surprised what they already know.
They say that music is the language of the angels, and that’s because it can bring anyone together. Bond with your teenage daughter with music, and you’ll have a long-lasting bond. 

7. Teach Them To Drive
Everyone knows that being a teenager means that you get to learn to drive. It’s an exciting time, and most teenagers are anxious to get started as soon as they can. It can be scary, but you have to let them learn. Talk to your friends and family to get any advice on how to teach a teen how to drive and get behind the passenger wheel. 

Let your daughter drive as soon as she can. Before you let her drive, though, make sure that your car is properly insured. You also have to have a serious conversation with her about the responsibilities of driving. When you get into the car together, you will bond while teaching her how to do something that she really wants to learn how to do. She will appreciate your help and your ability to let her grow up. 

If you want this to be a bonding experience instead of a nightmare, you need to be careful about how you talk to your daughter. If she makes a mistake, it’s important to be supportive and understanding. That’s easy for a small mistake, but that gets more difficult when she’s about to pull out into oncoming traffic. 

8. Spoil her a bit
Let’s be honest- the best way to make your daughter happy is to find gifts for teenage daughter. They are limited to minimum wage part-time jobs, so they don’t have access to much money. Do your daughter a favor and get her something that she would want. 

The good news is that gifts for teenage girls are easy. If you aren’t sure what she wants, all you have to do is pay a little bit of attention. Think about her favorite books and movies at the time. IS she interested in makeup and clothes? Does she absolutely love animals, music, or karate? Whatever her interests are, get her something in that area, and she’ll be very happy. 

Even better, try bonding with teenage daughter by taking her to the mall. This way you know that she’ll love whatever you get her, because she’ll be the one that picked it out. You’ll also get to spend time talking and learning more about her personal taste. 

9. Bury a Time Capsule
A time capsule is a little container that you put your favorite things in and then bury. The idea is that when you dig it up x amount of years later, you will see memories that you might have forgotten about. 

A time capsule is one of the best gifts for teenage daughter because you get to spend time together selecting the items to put in it. But the real gift comes later when you open the time capsule. You and your daughter will have the opportunity to dig it up together and go through those wonderful memories.
Some of the best things to put into a time capsule include pictures, recipes, a piece of jewelry, and a letter. The letters can be to each other to be extra emotional. 
While this option may be a tad bit cheesy, sometimes cheesy can be very good. Just don’t forget where you buried it! 

10. Go to Therapy Together
When all else fails, it might be time to enlist the help of a professional in the form of a therapist or psychologist. Look for someone who specializes in family bonding to help bring the two of you closer. 
Communicating with a teenager can be difficult. At times, it can be downright infuriating. A therapist will help you talk to your daughter in a calm and effective way.

They act like a mediator to keep tempers down. They will also ask the right questions to get you to express your feelings instead of bottling them up. You may have to do a couple of silly looking exercises, but they might even be fun. 
If you or your daughter vocalize other problems, it might be a good idea to find a psychologist that is qualified to do individual therapy as well. 

Final thoughts…

The relationship with your daughter is one of the most valuable things in the world. As your little girl gets older and turns into a teenager, you need to change the way you spend time with her. She is changing as a person, and it’s scary.

However, it’s best to be a part of the journey than preventing it or forcing them to go through things on their own. To stay a part of their life, try these 10 ideas to help you bond with your daughter.

Try to focus on her interests and incorporate them into these ideas, and you should have no problem bonding with teenage daughter. Gifts for teenage girls always work if you run out of ideas. Just take her shopping, and she’ll be happy to spend time with you. Whatever you do, just do it together.