When Texting Your Teen, Follow These Four (Not So) Simple Rules

Like most parents, I text with my teens regularly, and I feel fairly competent: I’m a good communicator, I know the lingo, and I understand the ins and outs of texting with teens.

Or so I thought.

Last week my oldest daughter, a college junior, sent me this text:

“Sometimes when you ask a ton of questions about whatever I’m doing or use excessive punctuation it really stresses me out.”

Wait, what? I scrolled back through our texts, looking for evidence, and quickly found this offending text:...