Top Tips For Coping With Your Troublesome Teen

Having children is such a wonderful gift. They may be hard work, but once you have them, you can never be without them. Your whole life is spent worrying about them, but when they look up at you and smile, all the stress and upset melts away, and you fall in love with them all over again. They can be cheeky little monsters and darling little angels within the space of a few seconds. All that charm has you wrapped around their little finger!

Sadly, the charm starts to fall away as they get bigger and older. By the time they reach their teens, life can be quite unbearable for some. Not only are they a torrent of hormones, but many young teens struggle to find their place, purpose and personality in the big wide world. This can easily be very distressing for your child, but it can leave you distraught when they refuse to engage with you so you can help them.

Teenage smoking pic from Flickr.com

Some teens turn to a bad crowd or even drink and drugs to help them cope. They desperately feel a need to belong, but sadly don’t realize they belong with you and the family. Teens have it tough with the pressures placed upon them to conform, when they feel they are a square peg in a round hole. What looks like a rebellion against you may simply be a push for independence, not realizing that adults need a support network as much as kids do.

Many teenagers struggle to believe what adults tell them. They have reached a phase of development where they need to experience things to understand them. Trying out substances and activities that you would not approve of simply is done behind your back so you won’t get mad. If it’s any consolation, it’s hidden from you to spare your feelings more so than theirs. It doesn’t help though because we always find out.

For some parents, a troubled teen needs to be straightened out before something too serious happens. You can look to residential treatment centers for teens. Activities are designed to help young people express themselves and understand themselves better. You may choose to look at family counseling, or you may accept it is just a phase and your teen will grow out of it. Whatever you decide, remember you are hurting just as much as they are when you fight. The solution needs to suit you both.

Raising teens can be hard, and it can be horrible. Our children look like adults and speak like adults but have no experience of the responsibilities that come with being an adult. Having the strength to be their own person rather than trying to fit in with one particular crowd is hard. It comes with life experience that is lacking at the age of fourteen or fifteen. Sometimes, all you can do is keep to the family routines and spend as much quality time with your teen as you did when they were small. If you want to talk to them, be sure to listen, and let them lead the conversation.