#4 I Was Your Age Once

There’s jokes about this one. The classic line everyone has heard from at least one of their parents: “I was your age once.” It’s typically used right before a pretty lame story about their more youthful days.

And yes, it’s exactly the moment that your teen gets that glazed over look in their eyes and starts daydreaming of pizza, clothing trends, movies, or something that happened at school.

But the trick to making this tactic work is to only bust out a story when it’s actually a really good one. Then you a) don’t kill the method, and b) establish that you were, and still are, awesome.

So, maybe don’t tell the story about you and Sally skipping class to go get coffee. Instead, tell them about an awesome concert you attended in college.