Parents are usually the role models for their children. This general perception may change on the child attaining adolescence. Hormonal and behavioral changes in children will require changed parental attitudes. When the teen’s troubles increase parental intervention is needed and when all efforts fail professional help is required.

Some teenagers sail into adulthood with no behavioral problems. Others, however have changed attitudes and behavior problems. Parents should monitor the changed behavior of their children and take appropriate steps. The signs of changed behavior include rebelliousness, defiance, unusual withdrawn behavior, violent behavior, substance abuse, addiction and compulsive obsessions like obsessions with body image. Teens go with a group of friends to whom their parents are not introduced. They become sneaky and hide aspects of their life from their parents. They withdraw from family and family activities. Some teens show signs of psychological problems like depression and anxiety.

Once teenage troubles are detected by parents, parents must take steps to solve the problem early and wean the teen from their troubles. Gentle non confrontational instruction will help to teach teens to lead responsible lives. Parents should listen to teens and be willing to act as consultants when the teen needs help. This is no time to play dictator. A dictatorial attitude will evoke a rebellious response and push the teen deeper in trouble. Parents should not trust the teen completely and if the teen does a rash act, parents should not hide behind a screen of disbelief. They should realize that the act of the teenager is a cry for help and professional help should be sought immediately. 

A troubled teen gets into habits that endanger the life and mental balance of the teen. Parents should endeavor to bring this balance back by helping the teen themselves or by consulting social workers or teen psychology experts. Parents need to keep track of their teen’s activities within reason. Parents should set down discipline rules that are not too harsh or too lenient. Disciplining is a part of loving and imparting values and sensible rules to a teen will save the teen from life threatening consequences.

Parental intervention is the beneficial first step to solve the troubles of an adolescent. Parents should spare no effort in correcting the behavioral problems of teens. If parents are unable to reform the child themselves, they should seek professional help. If professionals are not able to solve the problem, teenagers should be sent to special schools or programs  where living and  working with other troubled teens will help them to learn the values of discipline and leading a balanced lifestyle.

Parents should never shy away from seeking the help of professionals. These professionals are trained in dealing with teenage troubles. Physicians, therapists and counsellors are well versed in dealing with teens. Parents should be open minded and learn from these professionals ways by which the family can work towards helping the troubled teen.  

The primary institution where teenage issues can be resolved is the family and when a teen shows signs of trouble, family should make every effort to turn the life of the teen around.

Author: Jacob Wright
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Cool mobile gadgets

Drink driving is responsible for a large number of deaths, injuries and accidents every year all over the world, and the problem doesnt seem to be getting any better either. When consumed, alcohol seems to take away any healthy fears or responsibilities that the person would probably have in their sober state. This problem needs to be nipped in the bud otherwise we’re going to see an even bigger increase in the crisis with our teens and drunk driving related deaths, accidents and injuries.

Every parent does the best they can for their kids, but the bottom line is that once they get to those teenage years, many are more likely to go thorough a period where they are influenced by their peers rather than their parents. Unfortunately, many students are exposed to drinking at high school. There are some youngsters that seem to be constantly drinking and driving and never have an incident, whereas others have just one weak moment that ends in a driving catastrophe. I wish it wasn’t the case, but teens and drunk driving related incidents are on the increase.

Drinking alcohol and driving a vehicle is a potentially deadly cocktail of events at any age, but statistically, teens and drunk driving is even worse. Whether drunk or sober, when a young driver gets behind the wheel of a car, many of them feel the need to make an impression on their passengers by driving erratically and at high speeds. We all know that ’speed’ kills, but speeding cars plus intoxicated drivers is just asking for trouble.

Teens and drunk driving offences are not just something the bad kids do either, as even the smartest, the most reserved, and the most unlikely of them all, can and do fall victim to peer pressure on occasions. Another problems with teens (and I can remember this too!), is that they think they are indestructible and nothing bad could ever possibly happen to them. Even with educational programs and available statistics, most still think these are things that only happen to ‘other people’.

Remember, it’s not always drunk drivers that become the killed or injured parties. Many innocent passenger, motorists, and bystanders can get caught up in accidents caused by a drunk driver too. So what’s the answer? I guess, education, education, and more education on the perils of teens and drunk driving related incidences.

But I found a solution with my kids that seems to have worked wonders in installing a little sense and understanding into their growing minds. I made it an issue, a debate to be discussed, as opposed to a lecture on the dangers. It was also an education for me as a parent to realise that open discussion as opposed to laying down the laws was an effective way to communicate with adolescents and young adults.

By asking the boys for their feelings on the subject and also letting them know how worried their mother and I were about this growing problem, had us all sitting down and chatting for ages. We didn’t speak at them, we discussed with them, and there is a big difference. What’s more, we listened to what they had to say without interruption and I think that by the end of our conversation we had planted a seed of sensibility into their minds regarding teens and drunk driving.

Only time will tell, but we’ve found that by treating the kids as young adults instead of potential scoundrels has given both sides a little more mutual respect and that means they are more susceptive and less rebellious towards our ideals.

Author: Andy Maingam
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Netbook, Tablets and Mobile Computing

I’m not sure why, maybe because it’s spring, I’m getting a lot of questions and stories about kids and energy. I’ll put them all under that broad category but there have been several different subcategories discussed: kids and ADHD, kids and anger management, and kids and computers.

Kids and ADHD

Let’s start with kids and ADHD. There seems to be a big trend here in the US of drugging our children so they can “control” their behavior in school. I am NOT in favor of this practice.

Why is there such an epidemic of ADHD diagnoses in our children? I don’t want to oversimplify but I believe one reason is that our children don’t have the opportunities they had in previous generations to run around and expend their energy.

In years past, kids got to play in the parks, in the streets and in their own yards. Today, that happens less and less. Parents are too afraid to allow their children to be outside unsupervised, and rightly so! There are predators out there who would do your children harm. However, kids still need to expend their energy, somehow.

So, many times the activities available to them at home are sedentary, such as playing video games, watching television, talking on their cell phones or using the home computer. None of this provides opportunity to release energy, unless your children are like my niece who paces vigorously while talking on the phone.

Then we send them to school and expect them to sit down and be quiet. In addition, many schools are reducing the amount of physical education time for our kids and I’ve even seen recently that some schools forbid children to run at recess or use certain playground equipment because they fear of physical injury lawsuit. Is it any wonder our children are having difficulty?

Now I know there are parents and teachers out there who have stories of children who have been helped immensely by the addition of Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta or Dexedrine to their daily diet. If you know a child who is being helped by his or her medication, I’m not saying to discontinue it but for every child who is being helped, I believe there are at least three others who are still exhibiting all the ADHD behavior the medication was designed to reduce.

There have been studies done on placebo medications that show that in double blind studies, when neither the patient nor the doctor knew whether the patient was getting the actual drug or the placebo, the ones getting the placebo actually did better. Is it possible there is a placebo effect with some children?

If your child displays what you or the teachers believe is an excessive amount of energy, do your best to create situations where that child can expend energy. I have two boys who could both have been diagnosed with ADHD as children. They were very physical. Luckily, I lived in the country during a time when parents sent their kids out the door to simply “play.” I also spent a lot of my spare time running them around to different athletic events-YMCA soccer, wrestling, flag football, T-ball, basketball, you get the idea. This definitely helps.

Kids and Anger Management

I spoke with a woman over the weekend whose son is 10 years-old and she says has anger management issues. We didn’t really get into his specific behaviors but it caused me to reflect on some inherent differences between males and females.

I think that from very early on, boys and girls deal with their anger differently. As a general rule, girls need to talk about it to feel better, while boys need to work it out physically.

So if you have daughters, you want to teach them verbal skills to be able to work out their frustrations but with boys, you will need to provide opportunities for them to work out their anger physically-maybe with a punching bag, racquetball, running, or martial arts. The list of possibilities is truly endless but don’t expect your boys to “talk about it,” at least not until they’ve had the opportunity to release the anger in a safe physical manner.

Kids and Computers

This week, a mother contacted me about her child disobeying her limits with the home computer and sneaking time beyond her allowed limit.

In this situation, the mother had a need to protect and nurture her child. She wants to be able to loosely supervise her daughter’s time on the computer to possibly prevent her from falling prey to adults who victimize children by finding their victims on the Internet. She also wants to support her child’s need for physical activity so she restricts her computer usage and encourage outside physical activities instead. Is this mother wrong? Absolutely not.

Her daughter, on the other hand, has a desire to be on the computer. All her friends are on there and want to know why she isn’t. They don’t have limits while this girl does. This girl is quite accomplished on the computer and can build website pages for her friends. She also has a high need for freedom and doesn’t like being restricted and the computer is plain fun to her. She gets her love & belonging, power, freedom and fun needs met with the computer. Is she wrong? Absolutely not.

How does it get resolved? I think the way to resolve this issue is for the mother and daughter to sit down and talk about what each other needs and wants in the situation. If the child can convince her mother that she has the skills and knowledge necessary to protect herself from predators and she agrees to engage in other healthy activities each day, then her mother could relax her restriction on the amount of time she has on the computer.

In this case, and many others like it, the daughter wouldn’t be able to meet her freedom need with the computer if there wasn’t a rule to break. Sometimes we create the very behavior we are trying to stop with the rules we make. When a person has a high need for freedom, they will inevitably break the rules, particularly the ones they don’t like or that don’t make sense.

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs you’ll ever do and the stakes are incredibly high. We all do the best we can and hope for good results. Fortunately, when we have good intentions are kids generally survive in even thrive.

For more information on parenting teens and adolescents check out my Empowerment Parenting eCourse.

Author: Kim Olver
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty rates

Sometimes teens get themselves in trouble by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. With the wrong person or people. Teen years can be an insecure time, fraught with pressure. Pressure to do well in school so one can get into the right college. Pressure to excel in sports or other activities. Pressure to fit in with peers. Pressure to have a boyfriend/girlfriend. Pressure to seem cool and in the “know” about things.

Peer pressure can be quite stressful. Actions your teen normally wouldn’t consider if by himself/herself might be reconsidered in the presence of another teen or teens. This is why it’s important to know your teen’s friends. A teen that constantly hangs around friends who skip school and do drugs is at a higher risk of doing it himself/herself than a teen that has friends who excel in school and don’t party hard. People tend to pick up habits, good and bad, from the individuals they regularly associate with. It could be a pattern of speech, the way they view the world around them, to what is morally and ethically acceptable and unacceptable. It could even be a new hobby they pick up. Does this ring a bell, “Please Mom, can I have a ________ because everybody else has one?!” Everybody else being, those in their circle of friends or in their school. Or the cool kids.

The need to be accepted is natural. But it can come with high costs for a teen. A teen might want his/her independence, but isn’t able to handle it responsibly. Drinking (alcohol) and driving is an example. Another example is a teen that frequently socializes with other teens that steal. Even if he swears he’s not doing it himself, and therefore gives this as reason as to why it’s okay he hangs out with them, he’s still at risk. Even if he doesn’t think so. He’s not thinking things through. If he’s with these friends when there’s a bust he could be in real trouble. What if one of his friends buddies puts something in his backpack so the buddy won’t be caught with it. Your son now is up a creek. If your son wasn’t mixing with this crowd he wouldn’t be in the fix he now finds himself in. Teens need to know they need to be held accountable for picking certain friends.

This brings us to group mentality. It can be very strong. Especially if there is a charismatic leader in charge. Let’s say your daughter really wants to fit in with the cool group at school. Let’s also say she admires their leader. She might end up doing something mean to impress this leader. Also, if this group’s mentality is that it’s okay to do the things we do because we’re superior, what is this teaching your daughter? That if you think you are superior your say counts more? Even if years later she regrets the mean things she did, she has still hurt people. If you catch your teen doing mean things call them on it. If they try the excuse, “But everyone else was doing it,” remember it’s an excuse, not a reasonable reason. If many people in a neighborhood steal from a local store when there is a disaster it still is wrong. And against the law.

If you find your teen’s personality is changing for the worse have a talk with them. They might not want to talk with you but find out what’s going on anyway. Have a relative who they are close to get the “411″ as my teen niece calls it. Also, if your teen is normally easy going and cheerful, but has suddenly become aggressive and sullen, don’t ignore it. Check it out. Are you going through a divorce and complaining to them about it? Are you working long hours now and hardly seeing them because you think it’s okay because they’re almost grown up? Stop. Rethink. They aren’t adults. You are. You need to be the one they can reply on. Be there for your teen.

Find out what your teen is doing in school and after school. Find out what they’re doing on the weekends and with who. And remember a busy teen is less likely to find time to get into mischief. If presently your teen is getting into trouble with friends from school talk to your teen’s school counselor and get them involved in after school activities, charity work, or have them get a job. This way they have a chance to meet new friends who might have a better influence on them.

Author: Jay Marie P
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Canada duty