Parents always want the best for their children. Unfortunately, when these children become teenagers, they make parents feel like they never say or do the right thing. Teenagers face a load of problems between the age of 13 to 19 years old; it is known to be the most awkward time of our lives. We begin to question our parents' answers and tend to be more concerned with being accepted by our peers. During this period, we face internal and external struggles. We expected to cope with hormonal changes, parental issues, puberty and school pressure. We always feel misunderstood.
Friends become extremely important to us and can significantly influence our choices. As we focus on our peers, we automatically withdraw from our parents. Nevertheless, we still need our parents'love and support, we just don't realize that now. Having control of our impulses has proven to be impossible for us teenagers. Negative emotions are executed by us too frequently in what i like to call "transferred aggression"; we think of something that embarrassed or annoyed us at school and the moment anyone steps on our toes, we lose it!! (I can personally relate to this attitude 😂). Sudden changes in mood and disobedience towards elders are common conducts of teenagers.
We face physical challenges as to being too fat, thin, too tall or short. With these challenges, we expect our parents to develop a clear communication channel to open up many possibilities. To us, it enhances our relationship and helps us confide in them and present worries about drugs, sex and alcohol. The absence of communication arouses our curiosity leading us to take the wrong steps. I think that 90% of teenage solutions rely on our parents.
Trust is the foundation of every relationship. Spying, cross checking with friends will hamper this bond, leading to defiant behavior such as stealing, disrespect, lying.....
It is essential that our parents accept us for who we are and build trust in us. Trying to be flexible regarding certain petty issues will increase our willingness to accept their opinion no matter how divergent they are. Empathy and understanding are two main tools to mellow down our aggressive behavior. Parents are supposed to understand that this behavior is temporary and overreacting will worsen the situation. If any parent succeeds in maintaining a cordial relationship during and after teenage, he/she can boast of having good parental skills 😊
To all the parents with teenagers, i say courage 🤜🤛