GROWING UP AS A TEENAGER

Teenagers while growing up are largely exposed to some
overwhelming external and internal struggles and are expected to cope
with them. Most common of which are:
Puberty
Self-Esteem
Drinking and Smoking
Underage Sex
Career choices
Work and school pressures
Peer-Pressure and Competition

Teenagers feel overwhelmed when faced with
unprecedented stresses concerning school and
college, and career confusion situations. Those whose
parent are lagging behind in their parental duties are
largely exposed to unfavorable conditions of life.The
challenges teenagers encounters today varies but
these issues can be dealt with easily if parents and/or
guardians can understand the symptoms of their problems. Parents
need to approach their children, who have been suffering from one or
more of these problems, carefully and in a friendly manner to discuss
the problem(s).
Many teenagers feel misunderstood. It is vital that their feelings and
thoughts are reasoned with and that this reasoning comes from their
parents. Most of these challenges today are in diversity much of which
relates to each other and birth each other.
Parents, teachers and guardians should be well aware of these
challenges encountered by today’s teens and be willing to eliminate
them rather than rebuking those actions.
One vital fact is that in well-to-do and right standing families, teenagers
may also be faced with uncertainties, confusions, and wrong directions
involving their lives. Those with experiences of unstable homes,
alcohol addiction, premarital sex, bullying issues and relatable
challenges show themselves differently in the community they live in.
Here is where proper parenting role is vital, so that they can grow up
with the manners and teachings taught by their parents.
What Teenagers Expect From Parents
These and many other things are what a Teen child expects from
parents:
Shared Time – Parents should endeavour to spare out time
from their busy schedule for quality time with their children.
Honest & Open Communication – Condential talk with parent is vital during the teen years. However, in instances where
lesser time is spent at home and more time with school friends or
with other companions, they become their condant and in most
cases produces a negative result or inuence on the teen.
Avoid Improper Discipline – When disciplining teenagers,
parents need to be balanced. Try as best as possible to avoid being
so strict that you frustrate your Child/Children to the extent of
destroying their self-condence. Most parents do not want to be
lenient not knowing their strictness has failed to provide their teen
with the required vital training. Permissiveness however, can be
disastrous, so parent should learn to balance this.
Other points to note…
Find a good place to talk. Make your child comfortable with the
surroundings and talk to him/her calmly and patiently. Your primary
aim is identifying your ward’s problem and see what you can do to
help him/her out.
Parents need to be free when talking to their teens about certain
topics like dating, sex, drugs, and alcohol. It is this inability to
discuss the good and bad points that drives them to take wrong
steps out of curiosity.
CONCLUSION
Alcohol acts as a depressant and helps them to escape their troubled
teen lives from bad parenting. When teens see their peers drinking or
smoking, they too indulge in without thinking right or wrong.
Peer pressure is probably the toughest challenge teens have to deal
with. And the least a teenager would want is to be left out of his/her
group of friends. When it comes to drugs, the most important thing as
parents you can do is express plenty of love to your wards to get them
rid of this deadly addiction.
Likewise, It is important for parents to pray, read the Scriptures for their
teens because God’s Word is alive and active, and accomplishes His
purposes in our kids’ lives. When we use the words of the Bible as the
basis for our prayers, we tap into God’s power and align our desires for
our kids with God’s divine purposes for their lives.
The end result, as evidenced by John 15:7-8 , is that God gets glory
and we/our teens enjoy fruitful lives that are a one hundred million times
better than anything we might have planned on our own!