We've all been there: school crushes, peer pressure, acne
breakouts, hormonal changes, and a host of other things that made us confused,
scared, and excited all at once. We're all survivors of that phase in life
called adolescence.
But we're the lucky ones, we should admit.
It's because not everyone who goes through adolescence breezed through it.
Many people fall victim to depression and had
to find means to cope with all the stress this phase brings, such as finding
help from a clinic that provides dialectal behavior therapy in Westport, CT
and other areas. This helps find a resolution to all the negative feelings a teen
has.
If you're a parent and you don't want your
adolescent teens to suffer the same fate, you have a lot of work to do.
Thankfully, there are some simple ways to help them survive such a challenging
phase. Read on to learn about these tips.
Always find time to listen to your teens
An adolescent teen is normally tight-lipped
about a lot of things - being bullied at school, experiences of peer pressure,
and infatuations. Your job as a parent is not to be confrontational about
everything concerning your child. In many ways, just being there to listen to how your teenage
kid's day went is more than enough to show that you genuinely care.
Be there to listen no matter how trivial
their stories may seem to you. For them, such experiences could mean deep and
life-changing.
Regulate their use of digital technology
While this is up for debate, there's that
undeniable wisdom in putting some house rules when it comes to the use of screens - smartphones, tablets,
computers, and the like. These days, technology is omnipresent and there's no
way we can force our kids to spend a mere 30 minutes a day on social media and
online gaming.
Just create a draft and have your child
sincerely agree to rules, like finishing their school projects or helping with
household chores before using their gadgets. Be sure to strike the perfect
balance between giving them certain liberty with digital technology and setting
up guidelines on what they should and should not do online.
Be wary about distress signals
Many adolescent teens would rather keep
silent about certain things for fear of rejection by their parents. They may
suddenly spend long hours alone in their rooms or suddenly get annoyed at the
simplest things.
These kinds of behavior could be their way of
releasing stress over a serious personal matter, such as being a victim of
bullying. That said, make sure you'll observe for deviations from their usual
attitude about things so you could determine which ones are actually signs of distress.
Be there for them
It's not all about listening to them or
observing them or granting all their material and financial requests. For most
teens, their parents' presence is the most important gift they could ever
receive.
Be there at the school fair, give them life
advice, spend quality time indoors or out on the road; talk about everything no matter how mundane or
serious it may be. Just make your teenage kid feel that you're actually there
for them and with them. It would mean a world, for sure.
With these simple tricks, you could let your
adolescent kids breeze through such a challenging yet exciting time in their
lives.
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