Parenting a teen is mammoth task. Kids become rebellious due to their raging hormones. They are tough to control and tougher to discipline. However, the most difficult part is to make them focused towards their life. At this age, much of their body changes occur that lead them towards experimenting new things. Almost all the cases of teenage violence can be traced back to improper parenting. Most of the time improper parenting leads to exploitation because kids get reluctant to discuss any embarrassing problem. Therefore, proper parenting techniques become must to learn. If you are parents of a teenager, then you should know where things could go wrong in your parenting techniques. Here are ten parenting mistakes that you should always avoid:
1. Lecturing
Nobody wants to hear any lecture. When you were teenager, then you must have hated the lecturing part of your parents, so there is no reason to expect your teenage kid will not avoid yours. They become reluctant to discuss if they are lectured too much. They start hiding facts that may lead to their exploitation.
2. Overlooking
Another common parenting mistake is to overlook the faults. You need to keep your kids in discipline. If you are too lenient on them then they will start taking you for granted. These often lead to spoiling of character. They do mischievous things and cultivate bad habits. Overlooking your kid’s regular activities might also lead to improper knowledge of your kid’s well being.
3. Punishing too much
Parents often think that punishment is a form of discipline. They punish their kids for even a tiniest bit of mistake. This often leads them to take your punishment lightly. They develop a defiant attitude towards you. It is similar to students, who think failing is not their fault but it is the fault of the system.
4. Setting targets
Teenage kids are already burdened with so many changes. Setting a target for them will just lead to more pressure for kids. Most of them snap due to this excess pressure. Those who do not succeed treat their parents as their enemy. At this age, teenagers always merit the value of reputation. If they fail to achieve the target, they just take it as parent’s way to make them embarrassed.
5. Lack of sexual educating
This is the time, when the kids experience sexual changes in their life. If you are not educating them about the sex, it will lead them to experimentation or exploitation. Parents feel reluctant to discuss sexual things with kids, so these kids learn half-truths and fantasies from friends. Improper knowledge can make them victims of sexual offenses. This often leads to embarrassment making the kids more detached from parents.
6. Enforcing values
Parents have their habit of enforcing values. Too much enforcement makes these kids to choose the path of disguise. They learn the ways to fool your and show their defiant attitude. Most of the time, parents enforce values rather than discussing the merits. This generates a lack of interest among kids. Lack of information about the values often leads them to path of defiance and spoilage.
7. Obstructing the way of life
Most of the time, parents interfere with way of life of kids. They think cultivating habits of their generation keep them safe. This is true to a certain extent. However, teenage kids always take it as obstruction to their lifestyle. Parents have to stay cautious about good things and bad things. Parenting technique should be always updated with newer generation. Parents often block the good things of newer generation that lead to rebellious attitude of the kids.
8. Too much pocket money
Parenting is not about how much money you let them spend. It is about how much money you spend for them. The difference is minor yet its impact is major. Letting the kids access to big sum of money may lead to cultivation of bad habits. You need to limit their access to money in such a way that they have to come to you for making big purchases.
9. Not spending time
The pressure of the materialistic world often makes parents neglecting their kids. The action though is not voluntary, often leads to misconception. Teenage kids enormous amount of time. They need moral support from their parents. If they are not given enough attention, kids start to detach themselves from parents.
10. Spoiling them yourself
Teenage kids always idolize their parents. If you are indulged in bad habits, it makes them to adopt the habits for themselves. Smoking, drinking or quarrelling in front of kids are very bad habits. The kids just learn to follow. If you are indulged in such habits then how can you make them understand the bad effects of these habits?
