5 Effective Tips On How To Discipline A Teenager

Handling moody and sullen teenagers can be a nightmare for most parents. Tackling toddler tantrums may seem a cakewalk when compared to handling the dreaded mood-swings of adolescents at home. Therefore, the real test of a parent starts when their child turns a teenager.

Parents of teens are a nervous and confused lot. If you have a teen at home, you are probably walking around on eggshells, trying to figure out what will set your teen off, or how to implement that set of rules effectively yet tactfully. Read on to know how to discipline your teenager here.

Parenting A Teen:

Inculcating discipline in your teen early on in life helps in regulating your child’s behavior, habits and lifestyle for a lifetime. However, there will be instances where your perfectly disciplined and well-behaved child would suddenly display a sea change in behavior during his teen years.

Your child may show his rebel streak by sulking, nagging, whining, or even lying, outright shouting and saying NO in extreme cases. All these behavioral issues of your child would be testing your patience as a parent.

[ Read: Depression In Adolescence ]

5 Effective Strategies On How To Discipline A Teenager?

Here are few effective strategies or ways to discipline teenagers, that you can try out:

1. Be Respectful:

Teens start perceiving themselves as equals in the adult world and reciprocate the treatment meted out to them. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to create a tone and an environment that is respectful to both of you.

• If you have been shouting at your teen till now, then stop right now. The only thing this will lead to otherwise is your teen shouting back at you.
• Gaining your teen’s attention or time has nothing to do with yelling.
• As soon as you give up yelling, you will have a home environment that is more suited to listening than shouting orders or having endless arguments.

2. Make Your Expectations Clear:

You cannot expect your teen to read your mind about what you like or dislike.

• Discuss what is important to you and your teen.
• Talk about certain family practices or traditions that have been there for some time and should be followed.
• Set realistic and practical expectations. Expecting your teen to be home each day in the evening to cook family meals is almost like daydreaming!

[ Read: Anger Management For Teenagers ]

3. Support Your Teen:

One of the biggest things you can do for your teen is to be around. Your equation with your teen will improve overnight if he knows you are there for him no matter what. Every time your teen throws up a new challenge at you, take a deep breath and follow these tips:

• Try and understand what it is that your teen needs.
• Do not stick to just being a parent.
• Learn to multi-task and multi-role. For example, if your teen needs a mentor, be that. If your teen needs a friend, be that.
• Support your teen in all the difficult times in these very important years.

4. Make Your Teen Account For All Actions:

Making your teen accountable for his actions does not mean punishing him when something goes wrong. Instead, you need to find a way that will help your teen understand and differentiate the right from the wrong for now. These tips will help you make your child see reason:

• Focus on the present.
• Help your teen understand how to limit the repercussions of his misbehavior.
• Let your teen come up with suitable ideas instead of you imposing yours.

[ Read: How To Deal With Teenage Son ]

5. Help Your Teen Learn From Past Behavior And Mistakes:

This again does not mean that you nag, shame or lecture your teen. Follow without fail the golden rule of discussion when handling an errant teen and keep in mind theses pointers:

• Ask questions instead of telling.
• Let your teen think over what happened and what may have gone wrong.
• Ask your teen to think of some alternative ways in which the situation could have been handled.

Parenting a teen is surely tough, but it sure has its perks. Once you can reach out to your kid and be that friend, you bond for life.

Be that mentor and role model. Be the person your teen wants to look up to. Lead by example and hold your teen’s hand as a friend. It is then that you will truly be able to discipline your teen into becoming a better and mature adult.

Which one of these strategies you thought is the best way to discipline a teenager? If you have teenagers at home and you think you know all the tricks of the trade to tackle them, go right ahead and share with us your list of do’s and Don’ts with us.

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