Life can be unpredictable with emotional highs and lows when parenting teenager.
Most teenagers manage to find the way through adolescence without harm.
But, currently there are more than two million teenagers dealing with depression.
According to the recent studies, teenagers are less flexible and less able to handle with ups and downs of life.
While parenting teenager it is difficult to determine if your teenager is depressed or just suffering from teenage worries and troubles.
Depression! Depression in teenagers varies between mild, moderate and severe. There is a new anti-depressant known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors which is widely used for adults. But doctors are unwilling to prescribe them for teenagers and adolescents.
Communication is vital! The most important thing in parenting teenager is to keep all lines of communication open. Encourage your teen to share the thoughts and concerns with you. Face the problems together and do whatever it takes to get them through.
Share your experiences! Share your own experiences of adolescence with your teen. It helps your teenager to see that things can end positively. Press and television describe teenagers as dangerous and unpredictable criminals that do nothing except use drugs, get pregnant, get drunk and steal cars. Actually few teens fall into these categories.
Do not object! While parenting teenager, remember not to object for all the things they ask. If your teenager wants to dye the hair, paint the finger nails, or wear funky clothes, you think twice before objecting.
If the things are temporary and harmless, there is no need to object. If they are taking drugs, alcohol or smoking, then you can object because they really matter and are harmful.
While parenting teenager, you have to watch your teen whether he is spending with bad crowd or your teen is going in the right path or not.
Reduce the pressure! Teenagers have a difficult time in which they show different behavior. But as a parenting teenager, if you give support and love, they will not show anti-social behavior.
Teen years are most difficult development stages and at this time they try to discover who they are, how they fit in the world and what they want out of life. Pressure is one of the difficult hurdles for teens to overcome.
Pressure on teenagers is much more at this time and other pressures include sexually active, use drugs and drink alcohol. Along with these pressures, they have pressure of success in school.
What a parent should understand! Certain things such as acting out, attitude and revolt are normal. But most parents while parenting teenagers do not understand the language teens speak, culture they adhere to, music they listen to and teen angst. It is necessary to recognize that while teens are going through developmental changes, parents do as well.
There is a huge difference between parenting teenager and parenting child. While parenting teenager, parents often think that they can control their teens as if they were just ten year old child. This creates conflicts with each other.
Good relationship! It is normal to have conflicts between parent and teen. You have to maintain a good relationship with your teenager. As the teen hormones are constantly changing, you never know what or who you will be dealing with. No single approach will work at all times.
You have to look for new ways of parenting teenager to improve relationship with your teenager. New ways of parenting teenager includes mutual respect and affection which makes your teen to grow into healthy and happy adults.
Teen angst is certain and as a parenting teenager, you have to learn how to work with your teens to help them develop the tools and skills they need to make that transition from teen to adult.
