As parents of a teenager, some of the first areas to begin working on when your adolescent is displaying problem behaviors are your own communication skills, discipline techniques, and methods of conflict resolution. Seeking out information on teen parenting tips and advice in these particular areas will go a long way toward improving your troubled teen’s behavior and help you keep the lines of communication open while you rebuild your relationship.
Don’t forget to check out our article section under Teen Parenting Tips along with the other useful categories where you will find lots of information to help you with your defiant teenager.
When your youngster reaches the adolescent years, one of the first things you will notice is that many of your current tried and true skills for dealing with your child no longer work. You will discover soon enough that your old well polished parenting skills including your techniques for discipline no longer have the same effect they did all these years before, when you now use them with your developing, rebellious adolescent.
Here is the most important teen parenting tip I can offer you:
You will need to acquire new skills for communication, discipline and conflict resolution or you risk losing any kind of relationship bond with your maturing young person. And you risk losing control of your teenager who can easily spiral more and more out of control without the proper guidance and discipline from well-informed parents.
The hormone changes and rebellious stage necessary for transforming your youngster into a fully functioning adult creates an adolescent who still looks like your child but is no longer the compliant or well-mannered youngster of the past.
This entity (your troubled teen) that has taken over the body of your loving child will try your patience and knock you completely off guard if you aren’t prepared for the changes that lie ahead for you and your teenager.
Please don’t assume that just because you may have had a good relationship with your child up to this point that you can continue to maintain this same close bond without some major changes to the way you deal with your youngster when it comes to communication, discipline and conflict resolution.
Here is yet another useful troubled teen parenting tip:
As your adolescent grows and changes you must grow and change as well especially in the way you view and treat this maturing young person, if you are going to restore any sense of order in your home and relationship. Your teenager is no longer “your child”. Your teen is now forming the foundation for his/her final move into adulthood.
This new relationship between you and your teenager can actually be quite rewarding if you can accept and respond appropriately to this important milestone in your adolescent’s life. This will take time and dedication on your part as you learn to successfully handle this turbulent and often unpredictable time.
Some teens and their parents slide right through this phase without much notice. But I think it’s safe to assume that’s not the case in your situation or you wouldn’t be here reading this information right now looking for helpful parenting tips.
However, you’re not alone. Many, many parents face this turbulent stage of development for the first time every year unaware of what they are in for and unaware that there are things they can do differently when dealing with these difficult changes in their child’s development.
There are tons and tons of resources with great parenting guidelines and you need to reach out and search for the information you need to make this transition into adolescence for your child and you the parents as successful and problem free as possible.
Here is one final but extremely important consideration:
Not all adolescent problem behaviors can be solved by improving your parenting skills. When your best efforts fail don’t blame yourself and either continue to try harder or give up completely. There are many troubled teen issues that parents are unable to resolve on their own and not because they are “bad parents”.
If you find that making a successful transition for your child first into adolescence and finally into adulthood on your own fails, seek professional help immediately. There is help around every corner if you seek out the professionals you need when you see any signs of trouble.
The best approach is to seek help before difficulties have a chance to develop into behavioral, emotional, or mental disorders. Once issues turn into disorders they can be more difficult to resolve but still not impossible. So always reach out for professional help to get through these most difficult times.
But first, before doing anything else, read all you can in our article section, starting with Teen Parenting Tips.
You will be so thankful when you look back and realize that you have nipped problem areas in the bud before they became major issues and in the long run so will your troubled teen (but don’t look to your teenager for thanks in the present).