Living in Peace and Harmony With Your Teenager

What? Do you mean there is such a thing? Most people find it hard to believe that you can live peacefully with any teenager, even the good ones. Well, there are ways it can be done, but it does require effort on both parts. The parent and the teen must be willing to work together to maintain a good relationship without alienating one another. It is easy enough to say that you are the parent and it is going to be your way or no way, but parents that use that old stand by analogy find that it rarely works and often creates more problems than there has to be.

When teenagers are in the midst of this precarious state, they are growing up and are trying hard to make the transition from child to adult. Some parents are less accommodating during this time than others. Some parents can be much too strict with a teenager because they are afraid for them. They are afraid that they are going to make the wrong choices, hang out with the wrong people, be influenced by the wrong things, and this is a perfectly natural reaction. The only problem is that your concern can often interfere with the growing up process. We have to learn to give our trust to out teens until they give us a reason not to.

A good example of extending trust to them before you are distrustful is this. Sometimes a parent will be over curious when a teen begins to spend too much time alone in their room when they are at home. Most teens do this and it is simple enough, this is their way of detaching themselves from you and learning to have their own privacy. Usually they are doing absolutely nothing horrendous, it is just them taking the first steps of moving out without leaving the home.

It can be tempting for a parent to snoop into closets or drawers when the teen is not at home just so they can satisfy their curiosity that nothing bad is going on. This can be a bad mistake because you are showing them that you already distrust them before they have even given you a reason to. No one is saying that if you are noticing warning signs that you should ignore them. If your teen is coming home in a strange state of mind with red eyes or alcohol on their breath, only a parent with their head in the sand would not find out what is going on.

Even though you sometimes might have to make compromises to stay in a good relationship with your teen, make sure it is within reason and you are not giving into things that you really do not think you should. If you say be home by eleven and your teen wants to stay out until two in the morning, you know this is unreasonable. No teenager has any business out at two in the morning. You might make it twelve and feel you have adequately compromised and you would be right. Even though you want things to be in good standing between you, you also have to remember that are the parent and that you can loosen the reigns somewhat to give them space, just be sure you are not letting them go all together.

About the Author

Aydan Corkern is a writer an you can visit his sites for more information: how to get your ex back and garden supplies.