Challenges of Parenting a Teenage Child

                                                                

At last, the kids have gotten beyond grade school, beyond the age of clingy dependence and stubbed toes, and are finally becoming their own autonomous beings. As a parent enters into the teenage years, parenting doesn’t get easier, it just changes.

The challenges that we face as parents of teenagers, can be extreme, and our teenagers, whether they know it or not, need us even more. As we step from one era into the next, the challenges that we face as parents can bring us to our knees or, at the least, to the verge of tears.

While puberty is hitting children much earlier than ever from environmental and food-based reasons, the development of teenagers’ brains is still in flux until their mid-20s. This affects mood, personality and decision-making, among other things. Insight into the brain’s development can often explain at least some of the mystery that is the teenage years.  

Over the years, the way children and parents interact has been changing, and technology, such as video games, text messaging and the internet have been shifting the way teens view the world. This world of high tech is creating social isolation, and actually altering brain development and the ability to communicate.

We have moved away from the nuclear family of communicating around the dinner table, and into “on the run” communication through text messaging and brief phone calls to touch base. While the worldwide web of communication has its benefits, it has tremendously influenced how people interact with each other, specifically parents and their children.

Personally, our family has been through a lot. There’s been grief and loss, and in addition to that, going through the normal transitions of growing up in a fast paced society. Despite all of the emotional turmoil, I have been blessed with 2 wonderful sons who have been experiencing and adapting to the normal awkwardness of stepping into those dreaded teenage and young adult years that we as parents were so often warned about.

Here are just a few suggestions that I can offer you, to perhaps create a smoother 

transition though these trying years of both your own and your child’s development:

1.    Seek information about teenage development. Talk with other parents.

2.    Know that you’re doing your best as a parent and value your increasing wisdom.

3.    Have a positive attitude about your changing teenager and your own life changes.

4.    Talk to your teenager with 2-way communication. Listen and share things that are important to you both. 

5.    Stay interested in your teenager’s life. Spend time with your teenager and encourage them. 

6.    Keep your perspective and sense of humor. 

7.    Enjoy your teenager! Consider what you appreciate about your teenager and let them know. 

8.    Most important of all, tell your teenagers how much you love them. Because love heals all, and speaks much louder than words.

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