Parents of teenagers watch their once cooperative pre-teen turn into a rebellious young adult. Nagging a teenager about bending the rules is stressful for the parent, and leads to a battle of wills more frequently.
Because questioning authority comes into play at this stage, parents need to allow their teens to suffer the consequences of their actions. Over time, they begin to see that for every infraction, there is a reaction from others the teen encounters every day.
At Home
- Shirk household chores or responsibilities.
For every time a teenager skips out on their assigned chore, parents need to withhold a privilege, and at this age, teens respond quickly to parents withholding monetary rewards or allowances.
It will not take long for the teen to realize that they will not receive any money if they do not complete their chores.
- Use offensive language deemed off-limits by parents
Tell your teen the language is offensive to you, and suggest they use different words to express their thoughts. When these ideas do not work, refuse to respond when they use offensive words while conversing with you.
A teen will realize that in order for a parent to hear what they are saying, they need to stop using offensive words to express their feelings.
At School
- Cutting class or disrupting classroom
School administrators will assign detentions for students who continue to skip classes, or who continue to disrupt the class by refusing to follow school rules.
Teenagers learn quickly that trying to get away with spending less time in school than is required; will actually mean spending more time in school for them.
At Play
- Alienating friends
To teenagers, having friends is extremely important. Realizing the consequences of their actions among friends, takes less time than in any other area. They learn not to push the boundaries with friends by being rude, obnoxious or downright mean, because they are liable to lose a friend for keeps.
Although the teen years appear to last forever, parents can gain solace in knowing adolescents learn valuable life lessons they will carry with them into adulthood.
