Avoiding Evil

This is a continuation of:
Parenting Teenagers Part I
Parenting Teenagers Part II.
Parenting Teenagers Part III
Parenting Teenagers Part IV

On the website, Families Online, Alan Bright writes a couple articles concerning raising teenagers and proper discipline. Bright offers several suggestions for becoming better parents. The first suggestion is to catch your children doing things right. “Bad behavior and punishment should not be a major part of your relationship with your children.” Parents should always praise the good behavior of their teens. The second thing Bright suggests is that parents should agree with each other in front of the teens. A third tip is that parents should give instructions in a normal voice, if not “you are training your children to take you seriously only when you raise your voice or when you repeat yourself.” Another thing that parents should do is to never make a threat that they won’t carry out. We want our children to trust us and if we contradict ourselves it doesn’t build that trust. The fifth suggestion that Bright gives is that whenever you tell your teenager to do something you should make sure that you tell them the reason why. “Because I say so” is not an option. Make sure they understand so that they are more likely to obey you. The last thing is that parents must keep in mind that teenagers can spot hypocrisy a mile away. Parents should treat their children how they would want to be treated and lead by example.

Another writer for this same website, Angelique Forrester, gives some suggestions for parent teen interaction. Parents should resist put-downs about other people based on their appearances and so on. Parents should always praise and encourage their teenager’s strengths to reinforce their self esteem. Watching television with your teenager is a good idea in that it opens up the door to talk about how “real” the situations and images are. Listening is important for parents to do. “…making them know that they matter to us and their opinions are valid.” Teach your children strategies for their relationships with others, including being thoughtful in the way they treat other people. And finally love your teenager unconditionally and make sure that they know it.

These are just some instances of the wealth of information that can be found about parenting teenagers. There is a wide variety of opinions about this particular subject and people’s opinions are based on their own convictions and belief. Tomorrow I will offer some of my own opinions about these articles and the this subject.

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