"My Issue: Teens Communicating With Parents"

Chandler Jones
July 13, 08
“Teens Communicating With Parents”

Today in society, relationships with teens and parents are so different. By different I mean it’s more emotion, like arguments and more strife. The parents today look at technology and think teens today have it so easy. Wrong. Nothing is easy in a teenager’s life. That is why communication with parents and their teens are so important. Communication is important because adolescence is a time where a teen needs support and a good foundation. It’s a time where you have to learn how to figure out yourself, puberty, relationships and finding independence. The problem that parents fail to understand is that teens have to grow up and learn from mistakes. Parents in this generation don’t really want their teens to grow up that fast and that makes the communication thrown off because the teen then feels as though they have to prove themselves through acting out . The way a teen can act out due to lack of communication such as : running away from home, constant arguing, abandonment, grades dropping and maybe substance abuse. When lack of communication is involved with teens and parents the relationship becomes distant and withdrawn. Pain may also inflict on a family setting when the teen and the parent are not communicating.



Parents today are also more strict. Some parents like to shut down ideas and think they are always right. Teenagers have a lot to say and I think we should be heard. We all know parents want the best but they should respect opinions and now that their teen has a lot on their mind. Support and guidance is the best foundation for communication. Basically like a stepping stone on so many levels. I say this, because once parents and teens start from there they can then form something unbreakable. Especially with trust. Trust is also a stepping stone. If you have trust then it’s easier to gain independence from the parents and then it’s easier to trust the teen. This also means more privileges and rewards for both parent and adolescent. As teens mature, they start to think more abstractly and rationally. They're forming their moral code. And parents of teens may find that kids who previously had been willing to conform to please them will suddenly begin asserting themselves — and their opinions — strongly and rebelling against parental control. You may need to look closely at how much room you give your teen to be an individual and ask yourself questions such as: "Am I a controlling parent?," "Do I listen to my child?," and "Do I allow my child's opinions and tastes to differ from my own?"