Parenting Strategies To Get Along With Your Teenager

With these tips, your kids will develop positive relationships, build strong decision-making skills, and avoid risky behaviors into their teen years.

Cheryl Deszpoth is a Public Health Nurse with Halton Region Health Department's School Year's Program. She has been a registered nurse for over 30 years and has worked for the last 21 years in various roles with public health. Currently, Cheryl works with school staff, students, and parents in North Hallon to promote healthy environments and behavior to help kids thrive. Here are her best strategies for parenting into the teen years.

You might not even recognize your child during these teenage years because the changes seem to happen quickly. When they are going through their adolescence period, they have multiple physical and emotional changes.

The expert explains that during this transition time, parenting is also going through a lot of changes. You may find that the parenting approaches that you used very effectively when your child was younger are not working anymore now that your kid is a teen.

According to Cheryl, it's absolutely normal to feel overwhelmed and unsure during these adolescent years. The following tips will help you with your role as a parent.

Typical Adolescent Behavior

All teens come with different personalities. Boy develops very differently than girls, but, in general, there are several typical adolescent behaviors that experts see with kids, including:

-Changes in mood.

-Changes in their body.

-Increased sleeping.

-Increased risk-taking.

-Spend less time with family.

-May show less affection to parents.

-Changes in self-confidence and self-esteem.

Also read: TIPS TO HELP CHILDREN MANAGE UNCERTAINTY

They Still Need You to Parent

Your child still needs you into the teen years, despite how they may seem like they're not listening or despite how they may push you away at times. Research has shown that parents are still the most important influence in their teen's life. Young people want and need support and a close relationship with their parents.

Adolescence isn't a time to step back to reduce your support and guidance as a parent; they really need you. One of your main goals as a parent is to help your child grow up and develop into a healthy, responsible, and independent individual. To that, you need to allow them greater independence, to problem solve, and make good decisions for themselves.

Benefits of Being an Involved Parent

According to Search Institute, when parents are involved, youth:

-Do well in school.

-Enjoy being at home with family.

-Have a good peer group.

-Become resilient.

On the other hand, they are also less likely to engage in high-risk behaviors, use alcohol or drugs, and have a mental health crisis.

5 Important Parenting Actions

-Be connected: When you have a positive relationship with your teen, it makes talking about anything a lot easier. The more you talk, the more your relationship will grow. Positive relationships not only give meaning to our lives but also help teens make healthy choices.

-Stay involved: Staying involved is much more complicated as kids age as more time is spent away from the family unit. Their friends are becoming very important. Involvement includes parent actions to help their teens come to understand their purpose and set goals.

-Continue to monitor: Long gone are the days of direct supervision. As teens go off and spend more time away, monitoring comes about knowing what's going on with their friendships and activities.

-Be a good role model: Your teen is watching you. It's all about being an example. To be a good role model: do as you say, make commitments and keep them, admit when you are wrong, recognize and praise efforts, and show kindness and respect.

-Provide lots of support: Parent support is the foundation for all the actions. Support is really accepting your teen for who they are. Taking your child's opinion seriously will give them a significant boost in their self-esteem.

Be prepared that your teen's views might differ from yours. Instead of judging and punishing them, show understanding, warmth, and love. With these parenting strategies, you are ready to enjoy your vacations with your family without conflict and arguments.