Is your not-a-child-anymore and soon-to-be-an-adult showing any or all of the following behaviours?
Being Moody?
Rebellious?
Secretive?
Disrespectful towards you?
Aloof?
Conscious about looks?
Always in disagreement?
Keeping friends over family?
Non or less participative during family time?
Then this one’s for all you …..distraught moms and dads of teenagers.
And if it gives you any solace, each and every parent of a teenager is sailing in the same boat.
Welcome to the world of adolescents where we,the aliens, sorry, parents are just confused, angry, anxious, frustrated masses with frayed nerves.
But, what if I told you, you can hack into your child’s mind? You can get to know your child better so that you can deal with all the unpredictable behaviours.
Yes, it’s possible.
Just time travel.
You read it right.
Put on your Captain Kirk or Captain Spock gear and transpose yourself to your teenage days. May be our times were different. There was less development and there were hardly any gadgets. But lo and behold!! Our differences with our parents were pretty much the same. Our opinions never matched. They never seemed to understand us. They were too old school weren’t they?
Now travel back, my fella friends. Accept that there is always going to be a generation gap. So let’s do what maybe most of our parents might not have done.
Let’s give our children some space but define some boundaries as well.
Let us try to think from their perspective and then show them our own as well.
Try not to judge them.
Definitely don’t compare them to their friends or cousins.
Nagging is a big No No too. Communication is the key.
Talk to your child.
Listen without reacting.
Listen without judging.
Give them the freedom to make choices in matters that are not life threatening.
Give confidence to your teenager that you are there biggest well wisher in the world and that you got their back through thick and thin.
Believe it or not, they will start including you in their life.
Be an authoritative parent, not an authoritarian one.
We will discuss that in another blog.
Till then, happy parenting!