By Julie Khanna
When their hearts break, so does mine.
As a mother of three, I’ve lived through the exciting ups and devastating downs of teen dating. With every new hopeful connection, there’s a slight hesitant reminder of the butterflies, the late-night phone calls, the boosts, and the moments that can quietly unravel a young person’s sense of self. With every new hopeful connection, you want the peace of knowing your child is experiencing a healthy, safe, reciprocal relationship.
But as a divorced mother, I have a quiet pang of hypocrisy every time they turn to me for relationship advice.
Their father and I have a wonderful co-parenting relationship. We respect one another, communicate well, and are united in our love and expectations for our children. But the reality is, being in separate homes, we do not have the opportunity to model a daily healthy romantic relationship under one roof. Our children don’t see conflict resolution in real time. They don’t witness compromise over dinner or quiet partnership in ordinary moments.
That means we have to be proactive.
It’s important to acknowledge that while we can teach values at home, sometimes our teens need additional guidance. In the absence of lived modeling at home, it is 100% my responsibility to provide safe, vetted, reputable resources that reinforce what healthy love looks like, and what it doesn’t.
Because if I don’t teach them, the world will.
As the owner of Khanna House Studios, a content creation studio, and the mother of a daughter who is a paid creator on TikTok, I understand how deeply self-esteem and self-worth shape not only how we see ourselves but also the kind of love we believe we deserve.
Our teens are consuming thousands of subtle messages about love, worth, beauty, and validation before their brains are fully developed enough to filter them. And they’re receiving comments, feedback, and unsolicited messages from strangers online.
That’s why in our home, the foundation is not dating rules. It’s self-worth.
Self-love and self-respect are at the root of every healthy relationship, especially the most important relationship of all: the one you have with yourself.
My children and I work on that daily. We talk about boundaries. We talk about red flags. We talk about stepping into their power and having a strong sense of self. We talk about how attention is not real.
And social media isn’t the enemy. In fact, it is a powerful resource. I researched and vetted content creators whose relationship messaging is rooted in science, data, and health, and then asked my kids to follow the creators I vetted.
Parenting teens in today’s world requires humility. It requires admitting we don’t have all the answers and being willing to seek guidance ourselves. It requires modeling growth, not perfection.
We may not be able to shield our children from heartbreak or mistakes. But we can equip them with discernment. We can give them language for what healthy love looks like. We can surround them with mentors and messages that reinforce their worth.
And if we do that well, they will first learn to love and empower themselves.
About the Author
Julie Khanna is the founder and owner behind two media companies: Khanna Connections, a public relations, strategic communications, and media marketing agency specializing in the medical, health, and nonprofit industries, and Khanna House Studios, a full-production YouTube, podcast, and content creation studio located in Wellington, Florida, that also provides in-studio and onsite videography. With years of documented experience and secured media placements, Khanna and her team successfully secure top-level local and national media coverage for their clients and provide executive thought leadership on increasing brand visibility. Keeping a pulse on all sides of media, Khanna is the editor-in-chief of The Well of PBC magazine, and a contributor for many outlets including Around Wellington, NewsBreak, Medium, and more.
Connect with Julie: https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-khanna-725160194/
