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After a brief romance with a young lady, a teenage boy stops to assess what his life had been like during the last couple months. He started to realize that he had spent most of this time either courting the young lady, dating the young lady, or talking to the young lady on the phone. How much time had he devoted to friends? Not much.

After conversations with parents, he realized he had cut his old friendships just to impress and spend time with a girl that he would never date again. He learned his first important lesson about how to build lifelong relationships.

1) Be a good example. If teens witness parents keeping up old acquaintances and friendships, it demonstrates to them also how to conduct their own friendships. So call up old high school or college chums and stop postponing visits with them.

2) Think about correspondence. Correspondence has changed greatly since parents were teenagers. Instead of simple snail mail, there is email and the beauty of cell phones allows for unlimited calling, so correspondence should not be difficult. Keep in touch.

3) Talk to the teen about being fair and balanced. Discuss with the teens that one friendship should never be deserted for a boyfriend or girlfriends. Unfortunately boyfriends and girlfriends can come and go, but the people that are loyal are the friends that have been with you for a long time. The teen should always allot some time to friends that he/she is not seeing romantically.

4) Talk to the teen about avoiding resentments. Try to not let small disagreements keep friendships apart. I have seen friends break apart for reasons such as wearing the same outfit. Silly really. Teach the teen about perspective. Ten years from now, that outfit will be completely out of style and she will probably be grateful that she wasn't wearing it.

5) Make the relationship a priority. We tend to give the excuse that we are too busy even though we really do want to keep up the friendship. Teach the teen not to make excuses. True friends always make time for each other.

6) Develop common interests that will make friends come back to each other. For example my husband and his friends love fishing and hunting. Friends who have moved away and come back for a visit still contact him to go fishing or hunting. If a common activity or interest is developed between friends, it is easier to come back together and renew the friendship later on as adults.

7) Keep photographs. Even if the relationship grows apart, keeping photos of favorite times spent together can help to keep friendships up. Sometimes sending an old photo over email to an old friend is enough for a good laugh.

8) Remember family. It is important to keep in touch with family members. Often times teens are very close to cousins as they are growing up, but once they graduate from high school, they go their separate ways and it makes it more difficult to keep up relationships. So make sure the teen knows that family is important and those cousins will be with them for a lifetime.

The most meaningful relationships in a person's life often begin as teenagers. It is important to foster in the teen that it is important to keep these friendships for long time into the future.

Learn more about this author, MJ Suttor.
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